The gurnard genus Pterygotrigla Waite, 1899 comprises 32 valid species in three subgenera: Otohime Jordan and Starks, 1907 [short rostral projection (RP) without nasal spine (NS), short posttemporal spine (PS), very short or no cleithral spine (CS), and long opercular spine (OP)]; Pterygotrigla Waite, 1899 (short RP without NS, long PS and CS, and short OS); Parapterygotrigla Matsubara, 1937 (long RP with NS, long PS and CS, and short OS). Forty-six specimens (69.2–151.4 mm standard length) of Pterygotrigla (Otohime) tagala (Herre and Kauffman, 1952) were collected from Tosa Bay, Kochi Prefecture, Japan by trawl net in 100–250 m, being characterized by a spiny dorsal fin lacking black pigment, short snout (length nearly equal to orbit diameter), no vomerine teeth, 13 pectoral-fin rays, a long first free pectoral-fin ray (extending to tip of longest connected pectoral fin ray), pectoral-fin inner surface with a round jet-black blotch including one or more white spots, a scaled chest, and tubular lateral-line scales. Although P. (O.) tagala has been previously recorded from Thailand, the Gulf of Tonkin, Taiwan, the Philippines, and New Caledonia, the current specimens represent the first record from Japan. The standard Japanese name for P. (O.) tagala, “Tonkin-sokohobo,” proposed by Asano and Okamura (1963), was based on seven specimens collected from the Gulf of Tonkin (northern Vietnam/southern China).
