v1i1.9

Submitted date: 12 November 2008
Accepted date: 15 January 2009
Published date: 06 April 2009
Pp. 43–54, pls. 7–9.

AN OVERVIEW OF SRI LANKAN SEA SNAKES WITH AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST AND A FIELD KEY

Ruchira Somaweera* & Nilusha Somaweera
*Corresponding author. E-mail: ruchira.somaweera@gmail.com

Abstract
Sea snakes of Sri Lanka has not received much attention and the last few decades did not see any unprecedented increase in interest in these largely ignored (in Sri Lanka) snakes, despite heavy attention has been made on certain other groups of herpetofauna. Hence, a new checklist and an overview in ‘general literature’ are much needed. This contribution provides an enumeration of the recorded species, together with an overview of the natural history of the group and a set of field keys for species found in Sri Lankan waters.

Key words : distribution, identification key, natural history, sea kraits, sea snakes, Sri Lanka