Northernmost records of Gymnothorax shaoi (Muraenidae) from Yaku-shima Island, Osumi Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

Two specimens (604.0 and 647.0 mm total length) of Gymnothorax shaoi Chen and Loh, 2007 (Muraenidae), originally described from nine specimens from Taiwan, and currently known only from Japan, Taiwan, West Papua, and the Marquesas Islands, were collected from Yaku-shima Island, Osumi Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The only previously confirmed record from Japanese waters having been a single specimen from Amami-oshima Island, the Yaku-shima specimens, described herein in detail, represent the northernmost record for G. shaoi, and second Japanese record of the species.