Comparisons of the holotype of Plectranthias lamillai Rojas and Pequeño, 1998, collected off the Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of Chile, with type and nontype material of another eastern South Pacific species, Plectranthias exsul Heemstra and Anderson, 1983, show that the differences between the two nominal taxa reported by Rojas and Pequeño are not great enough to warrant recognition of two distinct species. Accordingly, we consider P. lamillai to be a junior synonym of P. exsul.