Blue-lipped Sea Krait

Fascinating facts about the Blue-lipped Sea Krait

• When Carl Linnaeus published his 1758 Systema Naturae, he gave the blue-lipped sea krait the name Coluber laticaudatus.
• A male blue-lipped sea krait can stretch to 910 mm (about 36 in) while a female reaches 1,070 mm (roughly 42 in), yet both share a tail just 110 mm long, showing how the species packs most of its length into a streamlined body for swift swimming.
• The ventral scales cover one-third to more than half the snake’s width and total 225–243 in number; males have 38–47 subcaudal scales while females have 30–35.
• From the Bay of Bengal to Fiji, this krait roams the Indian and Western Pacific oceans, earning the nickname “common sea krait” because it appears on reefs across dozens of countries, and a lone individual was spotted in Devonport, New Zealand in 2011 and again in January 2025 before it perished in an aquarium.
• The snake is known to warm up in wedge-tailed shearwater burrows, helping it regulate its body temperature when moving from water to land.

At a glance

About the Blue-lipped Sea Krait

The blue-lipped sea krait (Laticauda laticaudata) reaches up to about 1,070 mm in females and 910 mm in males. Its most distinctive feature is the dark brown upper lip, which together with a uniform 19-row scale pattern distinguishes it from other Laticauda species. The ventral scales are unusually broad, covering a third to more than half the body width; the nostrils are lateral and the rostral scale is undivided. Males have 225–243 ventrals and 38–47 subcaudals, while females have 225–243 ventrals and 30–35 subcaudals. It is found from the Bay of Bengal to Fiji and the Queensland coast, foraging in reefs and returning to land to digest, mate, shed and lay eggs. It experiences rapid temperature shifts when moving between water and land and is known to warm up in wedge-tailed shearwater burrows.

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