Samples of pteriid molluscs from extensive collections made in the South China Sea and the East China Sea from 1950 to 1976 serve as material for this study. The family Pteriidae consists mainly of warm-water species. With the exception of Pinctada radiate (Leach) which is a cosmopolitan species, all the other species are restricted to the Indo-West-Pacific region. They are found to occur mainly in the South China Sea, with only a few occurring in the East China Sea，none being found northwards. A total of 17 species belonging to 4 genera is identified, of which 7 species are first recorded in Chinese waters. Six species, namely, Pteria (Austropteria), antelata (Iredale), P. (A.) cypsellus (Dunker), P. (A.) chinesis (Leach) Pinctada maxima (Jameson) , P. margaritifera(Linnaeus) , and Electroma ovata (Quoy and Gaimard) are found to occur in the Xisha Islands. Of these, Pinctada maxima (Jameson), Pteria (Austropteria), cypsellus (Dunker) and Electroma ovata(Quoy and Gaimard) are found as far north as the coast of Hainan Island, Pinctada margaritifera (Linnaeus) as far north as the coast of Guangdong Province, Pteria (Austropteria) chinensis (Leach) as far north as the East China Sea, while P. (A.) antelata (Iredale) is not found elsewhere other than the Xisha Islands. Two species--Pinctada nigra (Gould) and P. anomioides (Reeve) are found to occur only in Hainan Island. Six other species, namely P. martensi (Dunker), P. chemnitzi (Philippi), P. radiate (Leach), Pteria (Magnavicula) penguin (R?ding), P. (A.) lata (Gray) and P.(A.) contunix (Dunker) are distributed along the coast of Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Of these, the first two species are more abundant than the other species and may be distributed as far north as Dongshan in Fujian Province. Two species--P. (A.) brevialata (Dunker) and P. (A.) dendronephthya Habe are found only in the deeper waters of the South China Sea. Only one species--Pterelectroma zebra (Reeve) is found in the deeper waters off the eastern and northern coast of the Hainan Island and extends its distribution further northwords to as far as the East China Sea.