English: Habitus of the subadult type specimen of Hydrophis lapemoides (BMNH 1946.1.7.2) from Sri Lanka. Photo by G. Brovad. Title: Bulletin of the Natural History Museum Zoology Identifier: bulletinofnatura5960nat (find matches) Year: 1993-94 (1990s) Authors: Natural History Museum (London) Subjects: Publisher: Andover : Intercept Contributing Library: Natural History Museum Library, London Digitizing Sponsor: Natural History Museum Library, London View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: THE STATUS OF HYDROPH1S LAPEMOIDES 101 Text Appearing After Image: llll;llll;ll 10 11 V? IS 19 20 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. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.