Hydrophis curtus, also known as Shaw's Sea Snake, short sea snake, but often includes Hydrophis hardwickii is a species of sea snake. Like most Hydrophiinae sea snakes, it is a viviparous, fully marine, and front fanged elapid that is highly venomous. It is collected for a variety of purposes including human and animal food, for medicinal purposes and for their skin.
Description
This species is characterized by a wide variation in number of ventral scales and degree of parietal scale fragmentation.
Both sexes possess spiny scales along their bodies but males have more highly developed spines. This sexual dimorphism in spines may play a role in courtship or in locomotion by reducing drag.
Distribution
It is a widely distributed species and like most sea snakes is restricted to warmer, tropical waters.
Its range includes:
Persian Gulf (Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Iran)
Indian Ocean (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India)
South China Sea (north to the coasts of Fujian and Shandong)
Strait of Taiwan
Indo-Australian Archipelago
North Coast of Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia)
Philippines (Panay)
Pacific Ocean (Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan, New Guinea)
Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Cambodia and Singapore
Taxonomy
Originally considered to be two species of the genusHydrophis: Hydrophis curtus and Hydrophis hardwickii. Gritis and Voris (1990) examined the morphological variation of over 1,400 specimens across its geographic range and concluded it is most likely a single species. As is convention, the species name reverts to the first description by Shaw in 1802. DNA and morphological analysis restored its phylogenic status as a single species.
An analysis of the population in 2014 found strong evidence of deep divergence and genetic isolation across the geographical range, supporting a division of the species to Indian Ocean and West Pacific groups and high likelihood of cryptic taxa within those groups.
Hydrodynamic sense
They have corpuscles (scale sensillae) concentrated on the front of their head which may be a hydrodynamic receptor. A study measuring brain response to water vibration found that L. curtus is sensitive to low amplitude (100–150Hz) water motions. Sensing water motion is useful in locating prey, predators, or potential mates and has been demonstrated in other aquatic animals (e.g. lateral line in fish, whiskers in harbour seals).
1234Gritis, P.; H. K. Voris (1990). "Variability and significance of parietal and ventral scales in the marine snakes of the genus Lapemis (Serpentes: Hydrophiidae), with comments on the occurrence of spiny scales in the genus". Fieldiana Zool. 56: i-iii + 1-13.
↑Heatwole H. (1999). Sea Snakes. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
↑Sanders, K. L.; Mumpuni, Lee M. S. Y. (2010). "Uncoupling ecological innovation and speciation in sea snakes (Elapidae, Hydrophiinae, Hydrophiini". J. Evol. Biol. 23 (12): 2685–2693.
↑Ukuwela, Kanishka D. B.; de Silva, Anslem; Mumpuni; Fry, Bryan G.; Sanders, Kate L. (September 2014). "Multilocus phylogeography of the sea snake reveals historical vicariance and cryptic lineage diversity". Zoologica Scripta. 43 (5): 472–484. doi:10.1111/zsc.12070. S2CID52838839.
↑Povel, D.; Kooij, J.v.d. (1997). "Scale sensillae of the file snake (Serpentes: Acrochordidae) and some other aquatic and burrowing snakes". Neth. J. Zool. 47: 443–456.
↑Westhoff G; Fry BG; Bleckmann H. (2005). "Sea snakes (Lapemis curtus) are sensitive to low-amplitude water motions". Zoology. 108: 195–200.
↑Dehnhardt G; Mauck B; Bleckmann H (1998). "Seal whiskers detect water movements". Nature. 394: 235–236.
Sources
Anderson, J. (1871). "A list of the reptilian accession to the Indian Museum, Calcutta, from 1865 to 1870, with a description of some new species". J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Calcutta. 40 (part 11(1)): 12–39.
Rasmussen, A. R.; I. Ineich (2000). "Sea snakes of New Caledonia and surrounding waters (Serpentes: Elapidae): first report on the occurrence of Lapemis curtus and description of new species from the genus Hydrophis". Hamadryad. 25 (2): 91–99.
