Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus Arnold, Harcourt & Pietsch 2014

Other Names: Bare Island Anglerfish, Red-Fingered Frogfish, Red-footed Frogfish, Sydney Anglerfish

A Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus, at Bare Island, Botany Bay, New South Wales, 26 November 2016. Source: John Turnbull / Flickr. License: CC by Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Summary:

An anglerfish with two distinct colour phases - overall grey, usually with naked black spots scattered on the head and body, and an orange, yellow, pink, red, and/or white phase, usually with many skin appendages on the body and no naked black spots.

Video of Porophryne erynthrodacytus at The Gutter, Bass Point, Shellharbour, New South Wales
Video of the anglerfish 'playing dead'.
Video of Porophryne erythrodactylus in Sydney

Cite this page as:

Bray, D.J. 2023, Porophryne erythrodactylus in Fishes of Australia, accessed 29 Mar 2025, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/5090

Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus Arnold, Harcourt & Pietsch 2014

More Info

Distribution	Endemic to New South Wales, from Sydney Harbour to Jervis Bay. Inhabits rocky reefs, often in association with small sponges of the genera Psammocinia (a greyish sponge), Darwinella (with red or yellow coloration) or the fan-shaped sponge Echinoclathria leporina.
Biology	Like many other temperate Australian anglerfishes, females produce and guard clutches of relatively large eggs.
Etymology	The genus Porophryne is from the Greek poro, meaning 'to bear pores', in allusion to the naked, black, "osculum-like" spots on the head and body of some most specimens, as well as its primary microhabitat within sponge (Porifera) beds; and phryne, meanig 'toad', a suffix commonly applied to lophiiform generic names. The specific name erythrodactylus is from the Greek erythros, meaning 'red', and dactylus, meaning 'fingers', in reference to the conspicuous red pigmentation on the tips of the pectoral-fin rays as well as along the distal margins of some or all other fins.
Species Citation	Porophryne erythrodactylus Arnold, Harcourt & Pietsch, 2014, Copeia 2014(3): 535, Figs. 1-3. Type locality: New South Wales, Botany Bay, Kurnell, Australia
Author	Bray, D.J. 2023

Red-fingered Anglerfish, Porophryne erythrodactylus Arnold, Harcourt & Pietsch 2014

References

Arnold, R.J., R. Harcourt & T.W. Pietsch. 2014. A new genus and species of the frogfish family Antennariidae (Teleostei: Lophiiformes: Antennarioidei) from New South Wales, Australia, with a diagnosis and key to the genera of the Histiophryninae. Copeia 2014(3): 534-539. Abstract