Hydrophis spiralis ( Shaw, 1802 )

Rasmussen, Arne Redsted, Sanders, Kate Laura, Guinea, Michael L. & Amey, Andrew P., 2014, Sea snakes in Australian waters (Serpentes: subfamilies Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae) - a review with an updated identification key, Zootaxa 3869 (4), pp. 351-371 : 355

Hydrophis spiralis ( Shaw, 1802) .

Ineich and Rasmussen (1997) mentioned H. spiralis for the first time in New Caledonia, which is surprising, as it has never been collected in Australian waters. The known distributions of H. spiralis are the Persian Gulf in the west to Vietnam in the east, Indonesia including Java and Sulawesi in the south ( David & Ineich, 1999; Rasmussen, Elmberg, et al., 2011). Whether it was a vagrant specimen from Asia or there is a population at New Caledonia is uncertain, but with only one specimen collected from New Caledonia without precise locality ( Ineich & Rasmussen, 1997), we do not include it in the possible list until further specimens have confirmed its presence closer to Australian waters.