Abstract
The Indo-Pacific scorpionfish genus Scorpaenopsis was revised by Randall and Eschmeyer (2001), who recognized 24 valid species in the genus. Subsequently, Randall and Greenfield (2004), Motomura (2004a) and Motomura and Causse (2011) described S. eschmeyeri, S. insperatus and S. crenulata, respectively, being new species from the southwestern Pacific Ocean.The East Asian endemic scorpionfish, Scorpaenopsis cirrosa, was originally described by Thunberg (1793) as Perca cirrosa, on the basis of a single specimen from Japan (probably from Nagasaki Prefecture, Kyushu). Because the holotype of the species was believed not to exist - "no type known" - (e.g., Eschmeyer 1998; Randall and Eschmeyer 2001), the latter, in their revision of Scorpaenopsis, designated a neotype for the species based on a specimen collected by a fisherman off Miyake-jima Island, Izu Islands, Japan, on 19 May 1975, and registered at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii (BPBM 18970, 210 mm standard length). The type locality of the species therefore became Miyake-jima Island, due to the neotype designation. A photograph of the neotype was reproduced in plate 2C of Randall and Eschmeyer (2001).
NSTL