Frogfish and Dragonets Codexery

Antennarius

A genus of frogfishes with a lure on the snout.

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Antennarius

Wmpearl · via Wikipedia: Antennarius · CC0

The genus was first proposed in 1816 by French naturalist François Marie Daudin.[1] According to the World Register of Marine Species, Antennarius is a genus within the family Antennariidae and the order Lophiiformes.[2] The name Antennarius, as explained in the ETYFish Project, combines "antenna" with a suffix, referring to the first dorsal spine's modification into a snout tentacle that functions as a lure for prey.[3]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. ClassActinopterygii
  4. DivisionTeleostei
  5. OrderLophiiformes
  6. FamilyAntennariidae
  7. GenusAntennarius

Named by Daudin, 1816

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Antennarius (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Type species
Lophius chironectes

Facts from the source article.

Biology and range

The gill opening is small and round, located below and behind the pectoral fin base.[4][5] Pectoral fins are limb-like with an elbow joint and broadly joined to the body.[4][5] The largest species, Commerson's frogfish, reaches 45 cm total length, while the smallest, Randall's frogfish, reaches 8 cm standard length.[4] The Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific database describes Antennarius frogfishes as having a body that is globular and somewhat compressed.[4][5]

The same source notes that the head is not spiny, the eyes are positioned on the head's sides, and the mouth is very large, upward-directed, and filled with many small teeth.[4][5] While most species are marine and inhabit shallow waters on various substrates, A. biocellatus is frequently found in brackish or even freshwater environments.[6]

What the specialist sources record

The Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific account notes that the pelvic fins have 4 unbranched and 1 branched ray, and the number of vertebrae is 19.[5] The World Register of Marine Species lists Antennarius as an accepted genus in the family Antennariidae, order Lophiiformes, class Teleostei.[2] GBIF holds 10,993 occurrence records for this taxon as of 8 October 2026.[7] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies Antennariidae within the suborder Antennarioidei in the order Lophiiformes.[8][9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Antennarius" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  2. World Register of Marine Species, Antennarius (AphiaID 125790). CC BY 4.0. marinespecies.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Antennarius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Christopher Scharpf, "Order LOPHIIFORMES (part 1): Families LOPHIIDAE, ANTENNARIIDAE, TETRABRACHIIDAE, LOPHICHTHYIDAE, BRACHIONICHTHYIDAE, CHAUNACIDAE and OGCOCEPHALIDAE", The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Antennarius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Genus: Antennarius, Frogfishes", Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific online information system; (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. "Genus: Antennarius, Frogfishes", Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific online information system. facts only, no text reused. biogeodb.stri.si.edu
  6. Wikipedia, "Antennarius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Theodore W Pietsch, "Coastal Fishes of the Western Indian Ocean", South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, 2022, p. 281–307 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence index, Antennarius (taxon key 10883966). CC BY 4.0 (backbone); counts are facts. gbif.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Antennarius" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; ; Arnold, R. J., "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", Cope; "Fishes of the World", John Wiley & Sons, 2016, p. 508–518 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Open Library record, ISBN 9781118342336 ("Fishes of the World"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Antennarius (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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