Hydrophis curtus (Shaw, 1802)

Rezaie-Atagholipour, Mohsen, Ghezellou, Parviz, Hesni, Majid Askari, Dakhteh, Seyyed Mohammad Hashem, Ahmadian, Hooman & Vidal, Nicolas, 2016, Sea snakes (Elapidae, Hydrophiinae) in their westernmost extent: an updated and illustrated checklist and key to the species in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, ZooKeys 622, pp. 129-164 : 139-140

Taxon classification Animalia Squamata Elapidae

Hydrophis curtus (Shaw, 1802) Figures 3c, 4b, 10, 11

Hydrus curtus Shaw, 1802: 562.

Enhydris curtus - Werner 1895: 19.

Lapemis curtus - Smith 1926: 112. - Kennedy 1937: 748. - Volsøe 1939: 21. - Corkill and Cochrane 1965: 495. - Joger 1984: 29. - Leviton and Aldrich 1984: XXIV. - Gasperetti 1988: 317. - Leviton et al. 1992: 125. - Carpenter et al. 1997: 248. - Firouz 1999: 192. - Baldwin and Gardner 2005: 250. - Firouz 2005: 210. - Soorae et al. 2006: 109. - Rastegar-Pouyani et al. 2008: 20. - Safaei and Esmaili 2009: 45. - Soorae et al. 2010: 535. - Kordi and Shabanipour 2012: 71. - Rezaie-Atagholipour 2012: 494. - Sereshk and Bakhtiari 2014: 116. - Sereshk and Bakhtiari 2015: 15781.

Hydrophis curtus - Kamali 2013: 237. - Safaei-Mahroo et al. 2015: 282.

Material examined.

Persian Gulf: 8 specimens, Bushehr Province [(ZMSBUK.HD.1), TL 915, SVL 831, HL 32.9, HW 24.9, GL 22.9, SNL 7.9, NEL 4.8, ND 74, GBD 130, NSL 8, NSR 32, BSR 39, NV 158, NB 39; (ZMSBUK.HD.2), TL 900, SVL 805, HL 34, HW 20.5, GL 23, SNL 7.3, NEL 5.4, ND 80, GBD 130, NSL 8, NSR 29, BSR 37, NV 187, NB 45; (ZMSBUK.HD.5), TL 835, SVL 755, HL 31.5, HW 16.8, GL 26, SNL 7.1, NEL 4.6, ND 62, GBD 95, NSL 8, NSR 30, BSR 39, NV 165, NB 47; (ZMSBUK.HD.11), TL 852, SVL 751, HL 30.3, HW 16.8, GL 22.2, SNL 5.8, NEL 4.5, ND 72, GBD 107, NSL 9, NSR 28, BSR 33, NV 147, NB 50; (ZMSBUK.HD.15), TL 1008, SVL 910, HL 34.2, HW 19.2, GL 23.9, SNL 6.6, NEL 5, ND 80, GBD 125, NSL 8, NSR 31, BSR 39, NV 185, NB 55; (ZMSBUK.HD.17), TL 869, SVL 781, HL 28.7, HW 15.8, GL 20.7, SNL 6, NEL 4.3, ND 61, GBD 75, NSL 7, NSR 24, BSR 36, NV 153, NB 48; (ZMSBUK.HD.47), TL 797, SVL 716, HL 30.5, HW 16.9, GL 19.7, SNL 5.6, NEL 4.6, ND 50, GBD 62, NSL 8, NSR 30, BSR 37, NV 158, NB 45; (ZMSBUK.HD.48), TL 716, SVL 642, HL 28.4, HW 14.8, GL 18.4, SNL 4.3, NEL 4.2, ND 55, GBD 85, NSL 8, NSR 33, BSR 43, NV 199, NB 46], September 2013, collector: M. Rezaie-Atagholipour; 1 specimen, Larak Island [(ZMSBUK.HD.61), TL 783, SVL 700, HL 28.5, HW 15.3, GL 20.3, SNL 5, NEL 4.7, ND 62, GBD 95, NSL 8, NSR 32, BSR 42, NV 200, NB 51], February 2014, collector: M. Ghavasi.

Gulf of Oman: 6 specimens, Beris and Pasa-Bandar, depth 20-40m [(ZMSBUK.HD.8), TL 855, SVL 772, HL 34.1, HW 21.6, GL 21.5, SNL 5.43, NEL 4.91, ND 70, GBD 93, NSL 7, NSR 28, BSR 34, NV 158; (ZMSBUK.HD.18), TL 960, SVL 865, HL 34, HW 16.5, GL 25, SNL 5.8, NEL 5.7, ND 72, GBD 115, NSL 7, NSR 32, BSR 37, NV 157; (ZMSBUK.HD.19), TL 825, SVL 753, HL 28.9, HW 18.1, GL 19.2, SNL 4.8, NEL 4.5, ND 58, GBD 100, NSL 8, NSR 33, BSR 40, NV201, NB 47; (ZMSBUK.HD.44), TL 1015, SVL 925, HL 40.9, HW 27.7, GL 25.6, SNL 6.6, NEL 5.3, ND 73, GBD 99, NSL 8, NSR 34, BSR 43, NV 197, NB 49; (ZMSBUK.HD.57), TL 745, SVL 674, HL 29.7, HW 17.6, GL 20.3, SNL 3.9, NEL 3.6, ND 57, GBD 85, NSL 7, NSR 33, BSR 38, NV 185, NB 50; (ZMSBUK.HD.60), TL 965, SVL 872, HL 32.7, HW 18.1, GL 23.4, SNL 5.6, NEL 5.5, ND 65, GBD 117, NSL 8, NSR31, BSR 39, NV 174, NB 51], August 2013, collector: M. Rezaie-Atagholipour.

Diagnosis.

Head large (Figure 11); tip of rostral markedly tridentate (Figures 2c, 3c); parietals divided into small shields (Figures 10b, 11 d–f); 7-9 supralabials, second contacts with prefrontal (Figure 10), third and fourth or only fourth touch eye; body short and stout (Figure 11 j–l); 147-201 medium size ventrals, distinguishable from the adjacent scales (Figure 4b), larger anteriorly than posteriorly; ventrals on anterior part of body more or less hexagonal in shape, less than half width of body; 28-38 scale rows on neck and 32-43 on body [27-31 and 32-38 ( Volsøe 1939)].

Coloration.

Three color patterns observed in this study: 1- usually gray dorsally, gray-whitish ventrally with pale gray dorsal bands (Figures 11a, d, g, j); 2- rarely yellowish body with blackish dorsal bands (Figure 11c, f, i, l); 3- rarely black-grayish body with black dorsal bands (Figure 11b, e, h, k); 39-55 dorsal bands in all three types usually fused laterally, zigzag in form; tip of tail usually black.

Size.

Mean TL 716 mm, maximum 1015 mm (n = 15); [n = 12, mean TL 606 mm, maximum TL 860 mm ( Volsøe 1939)].

General distribution.

Indo- West Pacific, from the Persian Gulf to Australia ( David and Ineich 1999).

IUCN Red List Category.

Least concern ( IUCN 2016).

Remarks.

In the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, Hydrophis curtus may be roughly confused with Hydrophis ornatus at a glance. Hydrophis curtus however can be quickly distinguished from Hydrophis ornatus by having parietals divided into small shields and laterally fused dorsal bands, zigzag in form, versus clearly distinguishable dorsal bands in Hydrophis ornatus . Volsøe (1939) mentioned that Hydrophis curtus is one of the most abundant sea snakes in the Iranian coastal waters of the eastern Persian Gulf. Our results show that it is abundant in the western part of the Iranian Persian Gulf (Bushehr Province) as well. Hydrophis curtus is a diet generalist, known to prey on fish belonging to 33 families, cuttlefish and amphipods ( Rezaie-Atagholipour 2012).