Abstract: After marine fishery resource surveys in the South China Sea from November 2016 to July 2020, 6 tube-eye fishes were caught and identified as Stylephorus chordates by the morphological characters. Accordingly, they belong to genus Stylephorus in family Stylephoridae of Order Lampriformes, and this species is found to be a new mesopelagic fish record of the South China Sea. The species is morphologically characterized by slender, elongate, and somewhat compressed body, telescopic eyes directing forward and somewhat upward, small and tubular snout, mouth cavity volume increasing dramatically and jaws stretching out, dorsal-fin base long extending from nape to caudal fin, caudal fin modified into 2 separate parts, 2 ventral caudal-fin rays elongated extremely. The species S. chordates collected recently from the South China Sea is the first record of China’s seas so far.