Table 2. Comparison of T. sp. with five Trichonotus species occurring outside Japan

	T. sp.	T. nikii	T. marleyi	T. cyclograptus	T. arabicus	T. halstead
Characters	This stady	Clark &Schmidt (1966)	Smith (1936)	Alcock (1880)	Randall 仌 Tarr (1994)	Clark 仌 Pohle (1996)
Dorsal fin-rays	IV-VII, 39-43	III, 46	III, 44	IV, 45-46	III-IV, 44-47	VI-VIII, 39-40
Anal fin-rays	I, 34-38	I, 41	I, 38	39-40	I, 36-39	I, 36-37
Lateral line scales	53-56	58-60	57	57-59	57-58	56-57
Gill rakers on first arch	5-7+19-23	7+23	6+21	-	6-9+20-23	乮4-5+16乯
Vertebrae	48-51	-	-	-	52-54	51-52
Dorsal fin-spines in male	elongated	elongated	elongated	not elongated	not elongated	elongated
Brownish spots on dorsal fin in male	present	absent	absent	absent	absent	present