Аннотация:Рассмотрена правомерность применения видовых таксонов рода Cleisthenes. На основе литературных данных показано значительное и достоверное расхождение рыб по морфологии, ставится под сомнение сведение форм «pinetorum» и «herzensteini» в один вид. Представители исследуемого рода, обитающие в водах зал. Сендай (Япония, префектуры Мияги и Фукусима), очевидно, являются Cleisthenes pinetorum. На остальной части ареала рода Cleisthenes обитает C. herzensteini. Taxonomy status of genus Cleisthenes was revised several times from the time of its description (Jordan and Starks, 1904) to nowadays. Some species of this genus were even assigned to genus Hippoglossoides. At present, the stumbling block in taxonomy of the genus is: whether the genus is represented by two species (pointhead flounder Cleisthenes herzensteini and pinewood flounder C. pinetorum) or only one. The problem cannot beeasy solved because of many contradictions in previous studies. On the base of retrospectiveinformation on taxonomy of these/this species, statistical significance for divergence of somemorphological indices is identified by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion of homogeneity,that prevents reduction of diversity for the forms pinetorum and herzensteini to one species. The flounders of genus Cleisthenes dwelling the waters of the Sendai Bay (Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures of Japan) are obviously C. pinetorum, whereas the rest of this genus range is inhabited by C. herzensteini.