First record of the Ribbon Basslet Liopropoma lemniscatum (Epinephelidae: Liopropominae) from Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan

A single female specimen (132.4 mm standard length) of the Ribbon Basslet Liopropoma lemniscatum Randall and Taylor, 1988 (Epinephelidae: Liopropominae) was collected from an offshore reef, west of Okino-shima island, Sukumo City, Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan in April 2003. This species is distributed in the western Pacific Ocean, with records from Japan, southern Taiwan, the Philippines (Davao Gulf), and Indonesia [a specimen from Palau in Allen and Erdmann (2012: 307, 2024: 328) was the misidentification of L. latifasciatum (Tanaka, 1922)]. In Japanese waters, it has previously been known from the Izu Islands (Izu-oshima island), Sagami Bay, Suruga Bay, Wakayama Prefecture, the Osumi (Tanega-shima and Mage-shima islands), Tokara (Kogaja-jima island) and Amami islands (Amami-oshima island), and Okinawa Prefecture. Accordingly, the present specimen represents the first record of L. lemniscatum from Shikoku.