A revision of the distribution of sea kraits (Reptilia, Laticauda) with an updated occurrence dataset for ecological and conservation research.
The genus Laticauda (Reptilia: Elapidae), commonly known as sea kraits, comprises eight species of marine amphibious snakes distributed along the shores of the Western Pacific Ocean and the Eastern Indian Ocean. We review the information available on the geographic range of sea kraits and analyze their distribution patterns. Generally, we found that south and south-west of Japan, Philippines Archipelago, parts of Indonesia, and Vanuatu have the highest diversity of sea krait species. Further, we compiled the information available on sea kraits' occurrences from a variety of sources, including museum records, field surveys, and the scientific literature. The final database comprises 694 occurrence records, with Laticauda colubrina having the highest number of records and Laticauda schistorhyncha the lowest. The occurrence records were georeferenced and compiled as a database for each sea krait species. This database can be freely used for future studies.
Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, 501 Life Sciences West, Stillwater 74078, Oklahoma, USA; Current address: Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, 2080 Adelbert Road, Cleveland 44106, Ohio USA.
Iulian
I
Gherghel
Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, 501 Life Sciences West, Stillwater 74078, Oklahoma, USA.
Monica
M
Papeş
Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, CEBC-CNRS UMR 7372, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France.
François
F
Brischoux
Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bvd. Mihail Kogalniceanu no. 36-46 Bucharest, Romania; Department of Terrestrial Fauna, "Grigore Antipa" National Museum of Natural History, Kiseleff no 1, 011341, Bucharest, Romania.
Tiberiu
T
Sahlean
Faculty of Biology, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași, 20th Carol 1st Boulevard, 700505, Iasi, Romania.
Alexandru
A
Strugariu
Amphibious snakes; Elapidae; distribution; geodatabase; marine; open access; sea snakes