I don't think that there is a considerable difference in meaning and they could be used interchangeably.

هناك فرق بين الحية والثعبان الحية وتسمى كذلك الأفعى تكون عادة صغيرة ولونها يختلف عن لون الثعبان أما الثعبان ( الثعابين) فتكون كبيرة يمكن أن نفرق بين الثعبان والأفعى كذلك في طريقة وآثر المشي إذا لم تفهم سأحول أن أشرح لك بالإنجليزية

hello, حية و ثعبان : they are from small kind, but : حية : is very smaller then ثعبان

hello, حية و ثعبان : they are from small kind, but : حية : is very smaller then ثعبان this appears in the holy Quoran, and ther´s an a lot of improves that they are not the same, if u are really interested i can explain more to you.

look, there's two opinions about that. 1- الحيه is the kind refers to the crawlers type which is snake while ثعبان refers to it's sex male or female. 2- the other saying is that ثعبان is great huge snake while حيه is just a snake hope this helps :)