Glauert's anglerfish (''Allenichthys glauerti'') is species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Histiophryninae Histiophryninae, the star-fingered frogfishes, is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Antennariidae, the frogfishes. The species in this family are found in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. Taxonomy Histiophryni ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Antennariidae, the frogfishes. This species is the only species in the

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

''Allenichthys''. This species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to southern Australia.

Taxonomy

Glauert's anglerfish was first formally described as ''Echinophryne glauerti'' in 1944 by the Australian

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Gilbert Percy Whitley Gilbert Percy Whitley (9 June 1903 – 18 July 1975) was a British-born Australian ichthyologist and malacologist who was curator of fishes at the Australian Museum in Sydney for about 40 years. Early life and education Gilbert Percy Whitley ...

with its type locality given as

Cottesloe Beach Cottesloe Beach is a popular beach in Cottesloe, Western Australia, Cottesloe and one of the most iconic locations of Western Australia. The enduring popularity of the beach is the result of combination of factors including proximity to Perth me ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. In 1984

Theodore Wells Pietsch III Theodore Wells Pietsch III (born March 6, 1945) is an American systematist and evolutionary biologist especially known for his studies of anglerfishes. Pietsch has described 72 species and 14 genera of fishes and published numerous scientific pa ...

proposed the monotypic genus ''Allenichthys'' for ''E. glauerti''. Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Histiophryninae within the family Antennariidae., while others recognise it as the family Histiophrynidae. However, the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

'' does not recognise subfamilies within the Antennariidae, classifying the family within the

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Antennarioidei Antennarioidei is a suborder of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes. Taxonomy Antennarioidei was first proposed as a taxonomic grouping in 1912 by the English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan. The 5th e ...

within the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes.

Etymology

Glauert's anglerfish has the genus name ''Allenichthys'' which suffixes ''ichthys'', meaning fish, onto Allen, honouring the American-born Australian

Gerald R. Allen. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

is an

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

but it is uncertain who this honours, it is likely to be the

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Ludwig Glauert Ludwig Glauert Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE (5 May 1879 – 1 February 1963) was a United Kingdom, British-born Australian paleontology, paleontologist, herpetology, herpetologist and museum curator. He is known ...

, a curator at the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory body, statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, WA Museum Boola Bardip, is located i ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, who collected the

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

. It may also refer to B. and U. Glauert, the ladies who collected the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

Description

Glauert's anglerfish has a short deep and rather compressed body that does not have a

caudal peduncle Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

. It has a large head with small eyes and a large upwardly directed mouth with many short, recurved teeth. The gill opening is a small hole under and to the rear of the base of the

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

. The first dorsal spine, the

illicium ''Illicium'' is a genus of flowering plants treated as part of the family Schisandraceae,

, is based on the tip of the snout with a lure, or esca, is an appendage covered in filaments. The second and third dorsal spines are free, not embedded in the skin on the head, the second spine is over the eye and is very short, recurved, thinning towards the tip and is covered with thick skin, although it is not connected to the head by a membrane and is also unconnected to the third spine. The third dorsal spine is located on the nape and is connected rearwards along its full length to the body by a thick membrane. The soft

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

as a long base and contains 15 or 16 soft rays while the

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

contains 8 soft rays. The rear margins of these fins are connected to the outer rays of the

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

. The pectoral fins are limb like. There is a dense covering of bifurcated spinules on the skin. The overall colour is variable and they are marked with scattered drak rings. The background colour varies through light tan, pale yellow, pinkish-brown, yellow-brown to brown. The underside is lighter in colour. The crown and the part of back in front of the soft dorsal-fin is dark-brown and the outer margin of all the fins is dark brown. This species has a maximum published

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of .

Distribution and habitat

Glauert's anglerfish is endemic to southern Australia where it is found from the

Dampier Archipelago The Dampier Archipelago is a group of 42 islands near the town of Dampier, Western Australia, Dampier in Pilbara, Western Australia. The archipelago is also made up of reefs, shoals, channels and straits and is the traditional home of five Ab ...

in Western Australia to

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island (, ) is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Poi ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. This species is a temperate and

demersal fish Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They oc ...

found in coastal waters on reefs, although it has been recorded from the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

in depths in excess of .

Biology

Glauert's anglerfish is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

and has separate sexes with the eggs being fertilised externally. This species is an

ambush predator Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivorous animals that capture their prey via stealth, luring or by (typically instinctive) strategies utilizing an element of surprise. Unlike pursuit predators, who chase to capture prey u ...

, the illicium and esca are waved around to lure in prey which are then sucked into the large mouth.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2785063 Histiophryninae Taxa named by Theodore Wells Pietsch III Taxa named by Gilbert Percy Whitley Fish described in 1944