Order LOPHIIFORMES


Common name: Anglerfishes
Summary:

A large and diverse group of marine predators found in shallow and deep sea environments.

Anglerfishes share the remarkable characteristic of having their first dorsal-fin spine (illicium) positioned on or near the snout tip and modified into luring structure to attract prey. They also have pore-like gill openings behind the pectoral-fin base that help capture of prey and are used in jet-propulsive locomotion.

While most species live on the bottom, the bizarre members of the mesopelagic and bathypelagic suborder Ceratioidei show extreme sexual dimorphism. Females have a bioluminescent fishing lure on top of the huge head, an enormous mouth filled with sharp depressible teeth and a huge stomach. The tiny males lack the luring apparatus, have huge nostrils and large pincer-like jaws, and are adapted to attaching to the much larger females.

Males in some ceratioid families become permanent sexual parasites on their female partners. Pietsch (2009) recently treated the 11 families and the 160 known ceratioid species in his wonderful monograph. Some ceratioid anglerfishes lack key genes involved in the body’s immune response, thus enabling males to fuse to females without deadly immune responses (Swann et al. 2020).


Anglerfishes were long thought to be related to the Batrachoidiformes (frogfishes). Molecular phylogenetic studies by Shedlock et al. (2009) and Miya et al. (2010) however, suggest that lophiiformes are related to tetraodontiforms and boarfishes of the family Caproidae.


Author: Bray, D.J. 2020

Cite this page as:
Bray, D.J. 2020, Anglerfishes, LOPHIIFORMES in Fishes of Australia, accessed 19 Mar 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/order/25

Order References


Arnold, R.J. & Pietsch, T.W. 2012. Evolutionary history of frogfishes (Teleostei: Lophiiformes: Antennariidae): A molecular approach. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 62: 117–129.

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Bertelsen, E. & Pietsch, T.W. 1983. The ceratioid anglerfishes of Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 35(2): 77–99 figs 1–18.

Bradbury, M.G. 1967. The genera of batfishes (family Ogcocephalidae). Copeia 1967(2): 399-422 figs 1-9

Bradbury, M.G. 1999. Family Ogcocephalidae. pp. 2023-2025 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 3: 1397-2068 pp.

Caruso, J.H. 1981. The systematics and distribution of the lophiid anglerfishes : 1. A revision of the genus Lophiodes with the description of two new species. Copeia 1981(3): 522-549 figs 1-21

Caruso, J.H. 1983. The systematics and distribution of the lophiid anglerfishes : 2. Revisions of the genera Lophiomus and Lophius. Copeia 1983(1): 11-30 figs 1-8

Caruso, J.H. 1985. The systematics and distribution of the lophiid anglerfishes: III. Intergeneric relationships. Copeia 1985(4): 870-875

Caruso, J.H. 1989. A review of the Indo-Pacific members of the deep-water chaunacid anglerfish genus Bathychaunax, with the description of a new species from the eastern Indian Ocean (Pisces: Lophiiformes). Bulletin of Marine Science 45(3): 574-579

Caruso, J.H. 1999. Family Chaunacidae. pp. 2020-2021 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 3: 1397-2068 pp.

Caruso, J.H. 1999. Family Lophiidae. pp. 2004-2012 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 3: 1397-2068 pp.

Gomon, M.F. 2008. Family Lophiidae. pp. 362-363 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Gomon, M.F. & Ho, H.-C. 2008. Family Chaunacidae. pp. 377-379 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Grobecker, D.B. & Pietsch, T.W. 1979. High-speed cinematographic evidence for ultrafast feeding in antennariid anglerfishes. Science 205: 1161-1162.

Ho, H.-C., Séret, B. & Shao, K.-T. 2011. Records of anglerfishes (Lophiiformes: Lophiidae) from the western South Pacific Ocean, with descriptions of two new species. Journal of Fish Biology 79(7): 1722–1745

Last, P.R. & Gledhill, D.C. 2009. A revision of the Australian handfishes (Lophiiformes: Brachionichthyidae), with descriptions of three new genera and nine new species. Zootaxa 2252: 1-77

Last, P.R. & Gomon, M.F. 2008. Family Brachionichthyidae: Handfishes. pp. 375-376 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Miya, M., Pietsch, T.W., Orr, J.W., Arnold, R.J., Satoh, T.P., Shedlock, A.M., Ho, H-C., Shimazaki, M., Yabe, M. & Nishida, M. 2010. Evolutionary history of anglerfishes (Teleostei: Lophiiformes): a mitogenomic perspective. BMC Evolutionary Biology 10(58): 10-27.

Pietsch, T.W. 1981. The osteology and relationships of the anglerfish genus Tetrabrachium, with comments on lophiiform classification. U.S. Fish. Bull. 79: 387–419.

Pietsch, T.W. 1984. The genera of frogfishes (family Antennariidae). Copeia 1984: 27–44.

Pietsch, T.W. 1984. Lophiiformes: development and relationships: 320–325. In Moser, H.G., Richards, W.J., Cohen, D.M., Fahay, M.P., Kendall, A.W. Jr. & Richardson, S.L. (eds). Ontogeny and systematics of fishes. American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists special publication no. 1. Lawrence: Allen Press.

Pietsch, T.W. 2005. Dimorphism, parasitism, and sex revisited: modes of reproduction among deep-sea ceratioid anglerfishes (Teleostei: Lophiiformes). Ichthyological Research 52:207-236.

Pietsch T.W. 2008. Melanocetidae. pp. 380 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. 18 October 2005. Lophiiformes. Anglerfishes. The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/. http://tolweb.org/Lophiiformes/21989

Pietsch, T.W. 2008. Antennariidae. pp. 364-374 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. 2008. Ceratiidae. pp. 385-386 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. 2008. Gigantactinidae. pp. 388-389 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. 2008. Himantolophidae. pp. 381 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. 2008. Oneirodidae. pp. 382-384 in Gomon. M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. 2009. Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea. University of California Press, 576 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. & Grobecker, D.B. 1978. The compleat angler: aggressive mimicry in an antennariid anglerfish. Science 201: 369–370.

Pietsch, T.W. & Grobecker, D.B. 1980. Parental care as an alternative reproductive mode in an antennariid anglerfish. Copeia 1980: 551–553.

Pietsch, T.W. & Grobecker, D.B. 1987. Frogfishes of the World: Systematics, Zoogeography, and Behavioral Ecology. Palo Alto : Stanford University Press 420 pp.

Pietsch, T.W. & Grobecker, D.B. 1990. Frogfishes. Sci. Am. 262: 96–103.

Pietsch, T.W. & Lavenberg, R.J. 1980. A fossil ceratioid anglerfish from the Late Miocene of California. Copeia 1980: 906–908.

Pietsch T.W. & Orr, J.W. 2007. Phylogenetic relationships of deep-sea anglerfishes of the suborder Ceratioidei (Teleostei: Lophiiformes) based on morphology. Copeia 2007: 1-34.

Rasquin, P. 1958. Ovarian morphology and early embryology of the pediculate fishes Antennarius and Histrio. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 114: 331–371.

Shedlock, A.M., Pietsch, T.W., Haygood, M.G., Bentzen, P. & Hasegawa, M. Molecular systematics and life history evolution of anglerfishes (Teleostei: Lophiiformes): Evidence from mitochondrial DNA. Steenstrupia 28: 129-144.

Stewart, A.L. & Pietsch, T.W. 1998. The ceratioid anglerfishes (Lophiiformes: Ceratioidei) of New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 28(1): 1-37

Swann, J.B., Holland, S.J., Petersen, M., Pietsch, T.W. & Boehm, T. 2020. The immunogenetics of sexual parasitism. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz9445