Abstract Three specimens of a small-fin wrasse, collected at Kerama Islands and Chi-bishi, off Naha, Okinawa Island, Japan, were identified as Pseudojuloides sev-ernsi Bellwood and Randall, 2000 on the basis of the following characters: slender body, small caudal fin, single pair of canine-like teeth anteriorly on jaws followed by incisor-like teeth, IX 11 dorsal fin rays, 13 pectoral fin rays, terminal phase with a large blue-margined black patch covering posterodorsal region of head and an-terodorsal one-third of body, and initial phase with a white line extending along upper jaw and passing below orbit to rear orbital margin. The specimens constitute the first confirmed record of the species from Japan, although a number of under-water photographs of P severnsi have been taken at Ie-jima Island (Okinawa), Kashiwa-jima Island (Kochi) and Izu-oshima Island (Tokyo), the last-mentioned locality being the northernmost recorded for the species.
