Hydrophis lapemoides
Creators: name: Figueroa, Alex
name: Low, Martyn E. Y.
name: Lim, Kelvin K. P.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Elapidae
Hydrophis
Hydrophis lapemoides

description: Hydrophis lapemoides (Gray, 1849) — Erroneous.
Persian Gulf Sea Snake
Singapore records.
Hydrophis lapemoides —Rasmussen, 1993: 97, 101, 102.— Iskandar & Colijn, 2001: 135.—R. Somaweera & N. Somaweera, 2009: 48.— Das, 2010: 321.— Buzaìs et al., 2018: 14.
Chitulia lapemoides —Wallach et al., 2014: 166.—Chan-ard et al., 2015: 277.
Remarks. Rasmussen (1987) reported on a specimen of H. lapemoides (ZMUC-R661010) that was caught in the Straits of Malacca during the Galathea expedition of 1952, and provided coordinates placing the specimen off the coast of Batu Pahat, Johor Bahru, Peninsular Malaysia. However, later he stated the locality as being Singapore (Rasmussen 1993), but also mentioned that it was collected in the same location as a specimen of H. lamberti (FMNH 31058), which was brought to the Kangkar Fish Market which operated out of Serangoon (see H. lamberti account; also refer to “A note on sea snakes in Singapore ” above). Thus, it appears the specimen was collected in Peninsular Malaysia and not Singapore. Although, H. lapemoides occurs in the waters from the Arabian Peninsula to Peninsular Malaysia (Wallach et al. 2014), no records yet exist for Singapore.
LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. No specimens.
Additional Singapore museum specimens. No specimens.
3c) Speculated Species (8 species)
Eight reptiles consisting of one turtle and seven snakes were speculated to occur in Singapore (Table 3). The seven snakes are all species of Hydrophis that Sworder (1923) suspected may inhabit Singapore’s waters given they’ve been recorded in nearby countries. Subsequent publications place these species as occupying Singapore despite no records. Thus, we omit them from Singapore’s checklist.
Class Reptilia Laurenti, 1768 (8 species)
Order Testudines Batsch, 1788 (1 species)
Family Geoemydidae Theobald, 1868 (1 species)
Genus Cyclemys Bell, 1834 (1 species)
Cyclemys enigmatica Fritz, Guicking, Auer, Sommer, Wink & Hundsd ̂rfer, 2008— Erroneous
Enigmatic Leaf Turtle
Singapore records.
Cyclemys enigmatica —TTWG, 2021: 222.
Remarks. Given its distribution of southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo (Fritz et al. 2008), C. enigmatica is suspected to be native to Singapore (TTWG 2021). However, no records of this species are reported from Singapore. Thus, we exclude C. enigmatica from Singapore’s native herpetofauna list.
LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. No specimens.
Additional Singapore museum specimens. No specimens.
Order Squamata Oppel, 1811 (7 species)
Suborder Serpentes Linnaeus, 1758 (7 species)
Family Elapidae H. Boie in F. Boie, 1827 (7 species)
Genus Hydrophis Latreille in Sonnini & Latreille, 1801 (6 species)
description: Published as part of Figueroa, Alex, Low, Martyn E. Y. & Lim, Kelvin K. P., 2023, Singapore's herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution, pp. 1-378 in Zootaxa 5287 (1) on pages 288-289, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5287.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7960319