[Objectives] In this study, fourteen specimens collected from East China Sea to South China Sea (including Zhejiang, Guangzhou and Hainan province) in recent years were preliminarily identified as Psettina filimana (Li & Wang, 1982) of Psettina in Bothidae according to Fauna Sinica, Osteichthyes, Pleuronectiformes, but the specimens were also found to have the main characters of P. tosana (Amaoka, 1963). Therefore, it is necessary to identify the species of our samples and clarify the relationship between the collected specimens, P. filimana and P. tosana. [Methods] In order to accurately identify these specimens collected from three regions, comparison of morphological characteristics combined with K2P genetic distances based on COI sequences between our specimens and the two type species were used in this study. [Results] Twenty-nine morphological characters of our specimens were compared with 21 or 25 characters in the original descriptions of P. filimana and P. tosana respectively, and 18 characters of the type specimens of the latter two species were also compared to each other. The results showed that the meristic, morphometric and qualitative features of P. tosana were overlapping with, inclusive of or consistent with those of our specimen and P. filimana, respectively. Moreover, the K2P genetic distances of COI sequences of our five specimens with the third fin ray of the left pectoral fin produced to filament or not (the distinguished characters between the two species used by Li & Wang, 1982) were 0.000 0﹣0.004 7; the K2P genetic distances of our sequences aligned with those of P. tosana from GenBank were 0.002 3﹣0.007 0. Based on the criterion for species identification which the interspecific genetic distance usually is greater than 0.02 proposed by Hebert in 2003, the molecular results of this study showed that there were no interspecific differences between our specimens that tentatively identified as P. filimana and P. tosana. [Conclusion] In summary, the comparison of morphological characters and COI barcoding in this study indicated that our specimens, P. tosana and P. filimana were the same species. According to the priority principle in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, P. filimana should be the junior synonym of P. tosana. It is the first time for P. tosana to be reported along the coastal waters of the Chinese mainland, so it is a new record species. A redescription of P. tosana was given based on the data of morphological characters in this and previous studies.