Ecology Summary - Laticauda laticaudata

Ecology of Laticauda laticaudata

Main Ref.	Mao, S. and B. Chen, 1980
Remarks	Widely spread in tropical reefs. Spends half of its lifetime on land but goes back to water to hunt for food. It then returns to small islets to digest its prey, mate and lay its eggs. Soft-bottom forager, targeting anguilliform fishes in cavities and burrows. Occupies the same trophic level as Laticauda saintgironsi (Ref. 101687). This species exhibits a more dynamic and complex predator-prey relationship with an anguilliform fish, its prey. Many conger or moray eels captured by sea kraits are likely to retaliate and bite sea kraits (considering krait versus prey body size), increasing the risk of injury on the sea krait's end as prey size increases, thus imposing difficulty on actual feeding (Ref. 118210).

Main Ref.

Mao, S. and B. Chen, 1980

Remarks

Widely spread in tropical reefs. Spends half of its lifetime on land but goes back to water to hunt for food. It then returns to small islets to digest its prey, mate and lay its eggs. Soft-bottom forager, targeting anguilliform fishes in cavities and burrows. Occupies the same trophic level as Laticauda saintgironsi (Ref. 101687). This species exhibits a more dynamic and complex predator-prey relationship with an anguilliform fish, its prey. Many conger or moray eels captured by sea kraits are likely to retaliate and bite sea kraits (considering krait versus prey body size), increasing the risk of injury on the sea krait's end as prey size increases, thus imposing difficulty on actual feeding (Ref. 118210).

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Laticauda laticaudata may be found.

Habitat

Substrate	Benthic: mobile; demersal; Soft Bottom
Substrate Ref.	Brischoux, F., X. Bonnet and Y. Cherel, 2011
Special habitats
Special habitats Ref.

Associations

Ref.	uBio Portal, 2015
Associations
Associated with	Platylepas iphiophilus.
Association remarks
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	mainly animals (troph. 2.8 and up)
Feeding type Ref.	Brischoux, F., X. Bonnet and Y. Cherel, 2011
Feeding habit	hunting macrofauna (predator)
Feeding habit Ref.	Brischoux, F., X. Bonnet and Y. Cherel, 2011

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition
From individual food items	4.50	1.03			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.

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Aquatic zones / Water bodies

Habitat

Associations

feeding

Trophic Level(s)