LEVITON, BROWN, & SILER: PHILIPPINE VENOMOUS SNAKES 
505 
Figure 38. Hydwphis [Lapemis] curtus Shaw, 
1802. Drawing by Emily M. Eng. 
ally encircling body, a narrow dark ventral stripe or 
broad irregular band occasionally present; adults often 
lack any pattern and are uniform olive to dark gray; 
head pale olive to black, yellow markings on snout present or not. 
Size. — Total length 850 mm (1100 mm, fide Rasmussen et al. 2011); tail length 85 mm. 
Distribution. — Philippines (reported from the Visayan Sea [/zr/e Alcala 1986:170]). Else¬ 
where: southeast coast of India to Straits of Malacca, Indonesia, and Australia, and north to China, 
Taiwan, and Japan. 
Remarks. — Grids and Voris (1990) do not recognize Lapemis hardwickii [now Hydwphis 
hardwicki] as a distinct species, placing it in the synonymy of L. curtus. McCarthy (1993) recog¬ 
nized it as a subspecies of L. curtus, allowing that the nominate form inhabits coastal waters from 
the Persian Gulf to the shores of western India, and L. curtus hardwickii ranges from the coastal 
waters of Sri Lanka and eastern India to New Guinea and Australia and north to the coast of China, 
the Philippines, and Japan (see also David and Ineich 1999:121-122). Smith (1926:113, 1943:471) 
argued that L. curtus ranges from the Persian Gulf to the west coast of India as far as Sri Lanka but 
that it is unknown along the east coast of India. We follow Grids and Voris in this handbook inas¬ 
much as theirs is the most comprehensive analysis of character variation done so far, and based on 
their study there are no mophological features that justify recognizing two species although we 
emphasize that recent phylogenetic studies (Sanders et al. 2013) place the genus Lapemis and its 
included species in the genus Hydrophis. 
Hydrophis cyanocinctus Daudin, 1803 
Annulated Sea Snake; Many-banded Sea Snake 
Figures 19B, 20B, 23B, 25B, 26A-B, 39 
Hydrophis cyanocinctus Tirndin, 1803:383.— Smith, 1926:56; 1943:454.— Whitaker and Captain, 2004:392, 
photo (p. 303). 
Description. — Head moderate, body elongate, not slender anteriorly; scales on thickest part 
of body overlapping (imbricate) throughout, with medial keel or broken into two or three tubercles; 
5-8 maxillary teeth behind venom fangs; ordinarily two anterior temporals; scales in 27-35 rows 
on the neck, 37-47 around midbody (increase from neck to midbody 8-14); ventrals 290-390, dis¬ 
tinct throughout, about twice as broad as adjacent scales; head in adult olive or yellowish, in young, 
head black or dark olive; young with black annuli that broaden dorsally and occasionally a black 
