Taxonomic Notes
This species was formerly known as Lapemis curtus, however, a recent molecular phylogenetic study of 39 sea snake species in 15 genera recovered Hydrophis as broadly paraphyletic with respect to several other genera (Sanders et al. 2013). Instead of erecting multiple new genera, the authors recommended dismantling the mostly monotypic genera Pelamis, Enhydrina, Astrotia, Thalassophina, Acalyptophis, Kerilia, Lapemis and Disteira, and recognizing a single genus, Hydrophis, for these taxa (Sanders et al. 2013). This classification system avoids confusion and better reflects the history of recent and very rapid diversification of these snakes and are followed by most recent authors.Hydrophis curtus is sometimes regarded as two species, H. curtus occurring in the Indian Ocean and H. hardwickii occurring in southeast Asia and Australasia (Smith 1926, Cogger 2000). This division is not supported by morphological analyses based on large numbers of individuals from populations throughout the species' geographic range (Gritis and Voris 1990). However, molecular data show a deep divergence between clades of H. curtus in the Indian Ocean versus the West Pacific (Ukuwela et al. 2014). Further work is required to confirm the identity of this species across its range, and at present, a single species, H. curtus, is maintained.
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
Presence of this species is confirmed within the United Arab Emirates marine territorial waters (Soorae et al. 2006, 2010; Gardner 2013, Castilla et al. 2017, Buzás et al. 2018). It is most common in the southern part of the east coast, south of Fujairah city, from 3.5 - 7 km offshore (Géczy et al. 2017, Buzás et al. 2018). In the Arabian Gulf, this species is apparently less common, with few known records; Soorae et al. (2006) recorded the species from Abu Dhabi island. It has been recorded from Iranian waters in the northern Arabian Gulf, with records from the Straits of Hormuz requiring confirmation. The depth range is not certain, but likely to be found to c. 55 m depth along the east coast. The first museum specimen from the region was collected off the west coast of the Musandam Peninsula (Arabian Gulf, UAE) in 1931 (Gasperetii 1988), and recent museum records are available for the UAE (Al Mayya Sanctuary, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates).Globally (Culotta and Pickwell 1993, Lukoschek et al. 2010), this species has one of the most extensive distributions of all sea snakes (Minton 1975, David and Ineich 1999). It occurs from the Arabian Gulf to eastern Australia and includes Pakistan, the entire Indian coastline, Myanmar, Thailand, South China Sea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and northern Australia (David and Ineich 1999; Ukuwela et al. 2014, 2016). One individual of this species has been reported from an unknown location in New Caledonia (Rasmussen and Ineich 2000), but it is not clear whether there are breeding populations in that region.
