A new record of the Dwarf Sea Krait ('Laticauda frontalis') from the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia

Common in Vanuatu, the Dwarf Sea Krait 'Laticauda frontalis' also is known from five old records (in the 1880s and 1890s) from the Loyalty Islands, between Vanuatu and the main island of New Caledonia. Those records have been interpreted by some authorities as errors, or as reflecting occasional waifs rather than breeding populations. We now report an additional specimen of 'L. frontalis' from the Loyalty Islands island of Mare, and we review distributional data for this species and for the closely allied 'L. saintgironsi'. Sympatry on the western coast of Mare confirms that these two taxa warrant separate species status despite their minimal genetic divergence.