Rediscovery of the Black-banded sea snake Hydrophis nigrocinctus (Daudin, 1803) (Reptilia: Elapidae: Hydrophiinae) after over a century, with notes on reproduction and conservation status

Rediscovery of Hydrophis nigrocinctus from Bangladesh

Abstract

The Black-banded sea snake, Hydrophis nigrocinctus, is a poorly known species first described in 1803 from a specimen collected from the waters of the Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans near Kolkata, India. Since then, it has been further reported from the waters near the type locality (Kolkata, India) in 1849 and another specimen (recorded as H. walli) was caught in the Malay Archipelago in 1896. In February 2015, during our field survey in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, we obtained a specimen of this species from fisheries bycatch. This marks the third known specimen and the first sighting of the species in Bangladesh recorded after over a century. We present morphological data and provide novel information on the reproductive status of this species based on the new specimen.