Hydrophis [Leioselasma] melanocephalus Gray, 1849

Black-headed Sea Snake; Slender-necked Sea Snake

Hydrophis sublaevis var. melanocephalus Gray, 1849:53 .

Hydrophis melanocephalus, Smith, 1926:64 .— McCarthy, 1993c:237.— David and Ineich, 1999:114.— Leviton, Brown, and Siler, 2014:508.

Leioselasma melanocephala, Wallach, Williams, and Boundy, 2014:359 .

TYPE LOCALITY AND TYPE SPECIMEN (S).— Indian Ocean ? (questioned by Smith [1926:65]); “‘China Sea or even... the Ryukyus’ via lectotype selection” (Wallack et al. [2014:359]). Lectotype: BMNH 1946.1.9.22 (formerly BMNH 47.3.4.68; fide Smith [1926:65]).

PHILIPPINE DISTRIBUTION.— Philippines (fide Rasmussen [2011]; David and Ineich [1999]) but without locality details.

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION (OTHER THAN PHILIPPINES).— Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Japan (Ryukyu Ids.).

REMARKS.— We have tentatively assigned this species to Hydrophis consistent with the treatments of Hydrophis and related nominal genera by Sanders et al. (2013) and Pyron et al. (2013).

CONSERVATION STATUS [IUCN].— Data Deficient [2016] ver. 3.1.