Hysterothylacium simile n. sp., collected from the Japanese seabass Lateolabrax japonicus (Cuvier) (Perciformes: Lateolabracidae) in the Bohai Sea off China, is described using both light and scanning electron microscopy. The new species differs from its congeners in the presence of narrow lateral alae originating a short distance posterior to the base of the ventrolateral lips, a long intestinal caecum (60.4-79.1% of oesophageal length) and a relatively short ventricular appendix (intestinal caecum to ventricular appendix ratio 1:0.58-0.85), long spicules (2.11-2.99 mm, 4.25-7.83% of body length), the number and arrangement of the caudal papillae (32-36 pairs arranged as follows: 27-31 pairs precloacal, 1 pair paracloacal, and 4-5 pairs postcloacal with the second or third pair double) and the presence of a particular midventral precloacal papilla. Specimens originally identified as Contracaecum paralichthydis Yamaguti, 1941 [now H. paralichthydis (Yamaguti, 1941)] by Xü (1957), collected from the yellow striped flounder Pseudopleuronectes herzensteini (Jordan & Snyder) (Pleuronectiformes: Pleuronectidae) in the Yellow Sea off China, were also re-examined. Their morphology clearly revealed they belong to H. aduncum (Rudolphi, 1802), which is also redescribed based on Xü's material. In addition, the morphological variation of caudal papillae in H. aduncum from P. herzensteini was compared, using scanning electron microscopy, with specimens collected from another three fish hosts, Lophius litulon (Jordan) (Lophiiformes: Lophiidae), Scomberomorus niphonius (Cuvier) (Perciformes: Scombridae) and Cleisthenes herzensteini (Schmidt) (Pleuronectiformes: Pleuronectidae), from the Yellow Sea off China.