This fish is found in the Indo-Pacific region where it has been recorded from Japan, Saipan, and the eastern and western tropical waters off Australia.

Pterygotrigla multiocellata was first formally described in 1937 as Parapterygotrigla multiocellata by the Japanese ichthyologist Kiyomatsu Matsubara with the type locality given as the Kumano Sea southeast of the Kii Peninsula in Japan.

[3] The specific name is a compound of multi with ocellata, which means "having eye-like spots", an allusion to the upper half of the body having a scattering of small yellowish dark-brown spots.

This species has attained a maximum published standard length of 24.1 cm (9.5 in).

[1] Pterygotrigla multiocellata is found in the Southeastern Indian Ocean and West Pacific where it occurs in Japan, Saipan and eastern and western tropical Australia.