| Remarks |
Abstract: A single specimen of the Duskytail Grouper, Epinephelus bleekeri (Vaillant, 1878) was collected by fishing from Kushimoto Town, located in southern part of Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. This species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, and in Japanese waters, it was previously known from Honshu (Kanagawa and Mie prefectures), Shikoku (Ehime and Kochi prefectures), Kyushu (Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures), and the Ryukyu Islands (Tanega-shima, Yaku-shima, and Amami- oshima islands, and Yaeyama Islands). However, Japanese records of the species based on specimens have been restricted to the south coast of Satsuma Peninsula (Kagoshima Prefecture), Tanega-shima and Amami-oshima islands, and Yaeyma Isands, and other records were based on photographs and/or reliable observations. Thus, the present specimen, described in this study, represents the first specimen-based record from Honshu, as well as the first record from Wakayama Prefecture. |