#Laticauda

[herpsandbirds]

Banded Sea Krait aka Yellow-lipped Sea Krait (Laticauda colubrina), family Elapidae, South Pacific

Venomous.

photograph by Giordano Cipriani

[snototter]

A yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina) returning to the sea in Sabah, Malaysia

by Bernard Dupont

[fishenjoyer1]

Fish of the Day

Today's fish of the day is the yellow lipped sea krait!

The yellow lipped sea krait also called the banded sea krait, or colubrine sea krait, scientific name Laticauda colubrina, is a well known aquatic snake. The range of the yellow banded sea krait is throughout the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific. To be more specific, along the eastern coast of India and then stretching the coasts of the bay of Bengal to all other Southeastern Asian countries with a coast, including as far as Fiji. Although they are not native to Australia or New Zealand, several populations have been found across their coastlines.

These snakes live nearby coral reefs primarily and shallow bay like areas, as their prey is almost exclusively within these areas. Unlike other sea snakes the yellow lipped sea krait spends significant time out of the water, around 50% of its time once it reaches adulthood. Juveniles spend their time almost exclusively in the water, where they will hunt and rest, but once prey is caught they will leave the water to digest on nearby shores. The speed on land is significantly reduced to that in the water, and as such these animals will attempt to remain hidden during these times, presenting a problem for when unsuspecting animals get too close. Other than to digest, the time on land is also spent shedding old skins, and reproducing.

Hunting is done alone, despite large numbers gathering together before and after hunts, and they eat primarily moray eels. This is done by flushing out their prey from narrow crevices and holes, by probing their head in. They then used their striped tail to convince the eel that their tail is their head, tricking them into attempting to flee in the wrong direction, then once the eel is close enough, they strike. Another thing that the yellow barred sea krait is known for is their venom. This venom is a rather powerful neurotoxin protein from the alpha neurotoxin family, which disrupts the synapses, causing paralysis.

The life cycle of the yellow lipped sea krait is regular for sea snakes. Breeding is done throughout September-December on the gently sloping beaches at high tide, where courtship rituals occur. Multiple male snakes will find a female that they consider large enough to successfully carry eggs. Then, they surround her, aligning their bodies as close as possible and contracting rhythmically, until she chooses one of them. After this, she will lay 10 eggs in a clutch, and hide the nest. In adulthood, they can grow up to 3 ft in males, and almost 5ft in females, and have life spans around 20 years.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

[kaicreatures]

[butchdykekondraki]

Do you want our reasoning for assigning yiu Fae because we could honestly write out like a whole paragraph about it

oh???? yes i would love to hear it? .:-0

[copepods]

Happy birthday!!!

tyy!!

[helpicant-stop]

Pspspspspsps you should tell us about heels dancing. Since we know nothing and you seem excited about it being mentioned

YAY!!!! heels dancing is a bit like a sister to exotic pole / stripping and ballroom dance since they all involve dancing in heels, but involve both differing style of shoe and dance

these are denovas, basically the only brand of shoe made for heel dance you can easily get in the philippines. they differ from pole heels because of the lack of a platform and a much more flexible sole. i've worn both and pole heels (pleasers, in my case) feel much more "normal" while heels heels (hate that contradiction so i'll just be saying dance heels from now on) feel almost unstable because they're made to be so easy to move quickly in; not just the sole, but the heel itself can move in a way that it can't feasibly do in walking and even pole heels. as for ballroom heels, i've unfortunately never tried them so i can't compare, but i have noticed that visually the designs tend to differ and the heel for ballroom is usually lower

i know a lot of heels dancers who can't even access denovas and opt for normal heels instead, which is unfortunately detrimental in the long run for both the dancer and the shoe. normal heels aren't made for the stress of heels dancing, and if they're especially unergonomic (which is unfortunately very common now) can end up putting unnecessary stress and pain on the feet. also, it's just harder in general to pull off some moves with regular heels

in korea, i've heard there are more brands there because of the popularity of k-pop, which sometimes borrows techniques from heel dancing. one good brand is ssimeez, and i have a pair of their dancing boots:

as for the choreo, a big portion of heels dance is of course the sexiness, although the degree of which varies depending on the choreographer, song, etc.

i once danced "circus" by britney spears, and it was very fast—more about the stamina and coordination and balance rather than being overtly sexy, but it was still incorporated through the moves organically.

slower songs usually have more focus on the sexy aspect, but then there's the hurdle of gracefulness, balance, making the moves look intentional. i've also noticed personally that slower songs make you push moves and flexibility farther than faster ones do. you don't need to be a contortionist to dance heels, but it does help if you have flexibility in your legs especially and back

chairs are also sometimes part of heels dance, not to be confused with chairlesque, which is burlesque but with a chair, or chair dance which is its own thing entirely. i've only ever done one chair heels routine, and observed chairlesque from a distance and never even SEEN chair dance though so i can't really tell you HOW they're different exactly but they are!

two of my favourite moves are a body wave and a headbang / hair flip (?), sometimes done in succession. very dramatic very hotgirl (gender neutral) energy. the only con is that the latter makes my glasses fall off if i do it too fast

heels dance is very fun! i recommend you try it at least once, although if you don't already know how to wear heels and wear them regularly it'll be a lot harder. the first time our (bio) mom tried it her legs and feet hurt for like three days, but because we wear heels multiple times a week it was just a little step up learning how to move in them, but there was no extraordinary post-workout next-day pain or anything. also heels dance gives you a big workout on your calf muscles and although my muscles remain invisible from the surface i like to believe my calves have become more ripped since i started

anyway that's all!! i'm not a pro so please take what i say with a grain of salt and also correct me if i get anything wrong [:

[kirstielol]

Happy gec

[reptimoe]

👁️<👁️

[squawkoverflow]

A new variant has been added!

Red-cowled Widowbird (Euplectes laticauda) © Nik Borrow

It hatches from black, dark, distinctive, floppy, long, new, red, and small eggs.

squawkoverflow - the ultimate bird collecting game          🥚 hatch    ❤️ collect     🤝 connect

[tropic-havens]

A gold dust day gecko (Phelsuma laticauda) suns itself on a lobster claw heliconia (Heliconia rostrata) in Kīloa, Hawai'i

[herpsandbirds]

Blue-lipped Sea Krait (Laticauda laticaudata), family Elapidae, Philippines

Venomous.

photograph by Artur Tomaszek

[sneefsnorf]

the fruits of my labour btw

drawing is calling to me like the green goblin mask

[ademonfromhell]

Ty for tag @deweydecimal-system

I’ll try my best (not exactly sure what a blorbo is, but I’m guessing they are just favorite characters/ people from fandoms. If I’m wrong, pls help)

Idk what I’m doing, so here you go

@its-arson-time, @laticauda-colubrina, @foryouthegays, @whittingsonder

None of you have to do it, it’s just for fun

and anyone can do it, good way to get to know your mutuals :3

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Are the various sea snakes all relatively closely related to each other, or is it just a matter of convergent evolution?

True sea snakes are all very closely related to each other, but there's another group of almost-sea snakes, the sea kraits, who are an excellent example of convergent evolution!

Hydrophiids are the true sea snakes. They all spend their entire lives underwater and, despite visual differences, they're all extremely similar in terms of anatomy and many behaviors. These sea snakes are actually also very closely related to Australian elapids (who evolved from sea snakes themselves!); many Australian elapids (like death adders, brown snakes, taipans, and tiger snakes) also belong to the Hydrophiinae subfamily despite being fully terrestrial snakes.

Then you have Laticauda, the sea kraits. These are different from true sea snakes in that they're not fully aquatic and still surface to shed, lay eggs, and bask. Sea kraits have paddle-shaped tails like sea snakes, but they retain the wide belly scales of terrestrial snakes. They're like a weird middle ground between sea snakes and terrestrial snakes! They're thought to have diverged from the wider elapid family tree earlier than true sea snakes, and simply found their way into the water independently of their Hydrophiid cousins.

[artsfromspace]

Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis

See, if you'd told me yesterday morning, before I started looking at reference pics, that komodo dragons were this colour- and patternful, I probably wouldn't have believed you. In most pictures they just look brown. But like!

I suspected this mans was freshly peeled at first and that's why he was so vibrant, but then of course I looked closer and. He's literally peeling at the moment. (This is my own picture btw, I just. Forgor.)

Or the zoo lied and it's a whole different monitor lizard lol.

Anyway! Check out my growing digital art zoo here, and tell me...

You can look them up or go by vibes :D If someone suggests something else and it doesn’t win, I’ll add it to my list for the future!