Abstract
Three specimens (191–247 mm in standard length) of a meso/bathy-pelagic ophidiid, Brotulotaenia nielseni Cohen, 1974, collected off Miyagi Prefecture and near the Ogasawara Islands, southern Japan, represent the first records of the genus Brotulotaenia from Japanese waters. Brotulotaenia nielseni, which can be distinguished from the other three species of the genus (B. brevicauda, B. crassa and B. nigra) on the basis of several meristic and proportional characters, including dorsal fin rays (85–101), total vertebrae (68–76) and preanal length (36.5–47.4% SL), was previously known from the western and mid (Hawaii) Pacific Ocean, and the western Indian Ocean.
