Abstract
Much confusion has persisted in the taxonomy and nomenclature of the sea turtles of the genera Caretta and Lepidochelys in Japan. In the present work, efforts have been made to relieve the situation with the following results:
1. The species that is rather common and breeds in southern Japan is not olivacea Eschscholtz as has hitherto been considered, but actually it is caretta Linné.
2. Thus, this turtle is to de designated Caretta caretta (Linné), and the old Japanese name ‘aka-umigame’, meaning red sea turtle, should be retained for this species.
3. Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz) seems rare in the Japanese waters. So far as is known to the present authors, only two specimens of this species have been caught in Japan, one at northwest Kyushu and the other on the Japan Sea coast near Niigata.
4. A new Japanese name ‘hime-umigame’, meaning little sea turtle, is proposed for L. olivacea
