THE STATUS OF HYDROPH1S LAPEMOIDES 



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Fig. 5 Habitus of the subadult type specimen of H. lapemoides (BMNH 1946. 1 .7.2) from Sri Lanka. Photo by G. Brovad. 



and Pseudochromidae. Pseudochromidae was found as prey 

 in a sea snake stomach for the first time, and Labridae and 

 Mullidae are new prey records for H. lapemoides (Voris & 

 Voris, 1983). The stomach contents from H. lapemoides 

 collected in Bahrain were too digested to be identified, 

 however, Vols0e ( 1939) mentioned Gobiidae in stomachs of 5 

 specimens of H. lapemoides from the Persian Gulf. Further- 

 more Voris & Voris (1983) mentioned Anguilliformes and 

 Ophicthidae as stomach contents from H. lapemoides. 



Epizooic organisms. Five of the 51 specimens examined 

 from the Andaman Sea and Malacca Strait had between one 

 and five barnacles (Platylepas ophiophilus) on the skin. Two 

 of the seven specimens from India and Sri Lanka had three 

 and 20 P. ophiophilus on the skin, respectively. 25 of the 71 

 specimens from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman had 

 between one and 181 P. ophiophilus on the skin. Most of the 

 barnacles were on the posterior part of the body. P. ophio- 

 philus is found only on sea snakes (Zann et al., 1975), and has 

 been found on many species (Rasmussen, 1992; Zann, 1975). 



Distribution. H. lapemoides is found from the Persian Gulf 

 in west, to the Malacca Strait (Singapore) in east. Specimens 

 have been collected from the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of 

 Oman, the coast of Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka, the west 

 coast of peninsular Thailand, Penang (Malaysia), and Sin- 

 gapore. (Ahmed, 1975; Bussarawit et al., 1989; Gasperetti, 



1988; McCarthy & Warrell, 1991; Minton, 1966; Rasmussen, 

 1987; Smith, 1926, 1943; Toriba & Sawai, 1981; Vols0e, 

 1939;). 



Recent collection data. H. lapemoides was collected in 

 different periods of 1985, 1987, and 1989 from fishing boats in 

 Phuket harbour, Phuket Island, on the west coast of peninsu- 

 lar Thailand. The most common sea snake brought to the 

 harbour by fishing boats was Lapemis hardwickii (over 80% 

 of all sea snakes caught by trawl) followed by H. ornatus, and 

 then H. lapemoides. According to the fishermen, the sea 

 snakes were caught mainly by sea-going trawler-boats, fishing 

 in waters more than 10 m deep. No further information was 

 available, as the fishermen were rather secretive about the 

 exact position of their fishing grounds. During collection in 

 the Persian Gulf (Bahrain) in February 1990, we went to an 

 area about 100 km north-northeast of Bahrain, on board a 

 trawling boat. On a 3 days trip we collected 7 specimens of H. 

 lapemoides, 2 specimens of Thalassophina viperina, and 1 

 specimen of H. ornatus. They were all caught by trawl in a 

 depth of 27-30 m, the bottom material was gravel. We also 

 collected sea snakes at Bahrain harbour from 6 trawling 

 boats, all working in the same area as mentioned above. In a 

 period of 10 days (each boat was out 3 to 4 times in that 

 period), a total of 110 sea snakes was collected, and 96% of 

 the snakes were identified as H. lapemoides. 



