A poorly known scorpionfish Scorpaena rawakensis Quoy & Gaimard, 1824, originally described on the basis of a single specimen from northern New Guinea, has not been reported since its original description, and the holotype has been lost. Examination of the original description revealed that the nominal species was a senior synonym of Scorpaenodes parvipinnis (Garrett, 1864). However, we herein regard S. parvipinnis as a valid name, following “Reversal of precedence” defined by ICZN (1999).