The warty frogfish or clown frogfish (''Antennarius maculatus'') is a 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

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. The warty frogfish is found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region.

Taxonomy

The warty frogfish was first formally described as ''Chironectes maculatus'' in 1840 by the French

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Julien François Desjardins with its type locality given as Mauritius. Within the genus ''

Antennarius ''Antennarius'' is a genus of anglerfish belonging to the Family (biology), family Antennariidae, the frogfishes. The fishes in this genus are found in warmer parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Taxonomy ''Antennarius'' was first p ...

'' the Indian frogfish belongs to the '' pictus''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. 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 ...

'' classifies the genus ''

'' in the family Antennariidae 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

''Antennarius maculatus'' has the genus name ''Antennarius'' which suffixes ''-ius'' to antenna, an allusion to first dorsal spine being adapted into a tentacle on the snout used as a lure to attract prey. 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 ...

''maculatus'' means "spotted", an allusion to the many brown variably sized circular dark spots on the body.

Description

The warty frogfish grows up to long. Like other members of its family, it has a globulous, extensible body, and its soft skin is covered with small dermal

spinule Spinules are small spines or thorns (vertebral columns) that are part of biological and manmade structures. The word originates from the Latin word and is often used in botany and zoology. The presence or absence of spinules, and their shape, can ...

s. The skin is covered with numerous small, wart-like protuberances. Its large

prognathous Prognathism is a positional relationship of the mandible or maxilla to the skeletal base where either of the jaws protrudes beyond a predetermined imaginary line in the coronal plane of the skull. In the case of ''mandibular'' prognathism (nev ...

mouth allows it to consume prey its same size. The coloring of its body is extremely variable because it tends to match its living environment.

Frogfish Frogfishes are any member of the anglerfish family Antennariidae, of the order Lophiiformes. Antennariids are known as anglerfish in Australia, where the term "frogfish" refers to members of the unrelated family Batrachoididae. Frogfishes are f ...

es have the capacity to change coloration and pigment pattern in a few weeks: during

coral bleaching Coral bleaching is the process when corals become white due to loss of Symbiosis, symbiotic algae and Photosynthesis, photosynthetic pigments. This loss of pigment can be caused by various stressors, such as changes in water temperature, light, ...

events, they can even turn to plain white to blend in with the environment. However, the dominant coloration goes from white to black, passing through a whole range of related nuances such as cream, pink, yellow, red, and brown, often with dark, circular spots and/or with saddles. Some heavily spotted specimens can easily be confused with its close relative ''

Antennarius pictus The painted frogfish (''Antennarius pictus''), or spotted frogfish, black angler or painted anglerfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Antennariidae, the frogfishes. This species is found in the Indo-Pacific regio ...

''. This characteristic can help to separate them: usually, ''A. maculatus'' has red or orange margins on all fins and sometimes a spike of the saddle blotch starts posterior to the eye. The first dorsal spine, the

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

is modified and is used as a fishing rod. Its extremity is endowed with a characteristic esca ( lure), which looks like a small fish with a pinkish to brownish coloration. The illicium is twice the length of the second dorsal spine and its often darkly banded. The second dorsal spine is practically straight and is mobile, and the third one is bent towards the back of the body; both are membranously attached to the head. They are well separated from each other and also from the

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 ...

. 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 ...

s are angled and help, with the

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral (belly) surface of fish, and are the lower of the only two sets of paired fins (the other being the laterally positioned pectoral fins). The pelvic fins are homologous to the hi ...

s, to

move Move or The Move may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Move (company), an American online real estate company * Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer * Daihatsu Move, a Japanese car * PlayStation Move, a motion ...

the fish on the bottom and to keep a stable position for

ambush An ambush is a surprise attack carried out by people lying in wait in a concealed position. The concealed position itself or the concealed person(s) may also be called an "". Ambushes as a basic military tactics, fighting tactic of soldi ...

. The warty frogfish exhibits

biofluorescence Biofluorescence is fluorescence exhibited by a living organism: part of the organism absorbs light or other radiation at one wavelength and emits visible light at another, usually longer. The absorbed radiation is often blue or ultraviolet, while t ...

, that is, when illuminated by blue or ultraviolet light, it re-emits it as red, and appears differently than under white light illumination. Biofluorescence may assist intraspecific communication and camouflage. File:Antennarius maculatus.003 - Aquarium Finisterrae.jpg, File:Clown Frogfish (Antennarius maculatus) (8470598015).jpg, File:KumadoriIUOose.jpg, File:Warty Frogfish (Antennarius maculatus) (6103400392).jpg,

Distribution and habitat

''A. maculatus'' lives in the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific area from

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

and

Reunion Island Reunion may refer to: * Class reunion * Family reunion Reunion, Réunion, Re-union, Reunions or The Reunion may also refer to: Places * Réunion, a French overseas department and island in the Indian Ocean * Reunion, Commerce City, Colorado, U ...

of the center of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

to the western part of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. It is found in sheltered rocky and coral reefs; adults are usually associated with

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s down to deep.

Feeding

As all frogfishes, ''A. hispidus'' is a voracious

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

which can attack all small animals that pass within its "strike range", mainly fishes. Its prey can vary in size to close to its own size.

Behaviour

Like other members of their family, they have a

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

and solitary lifestyle. They gather during mating period, but do not tolerate each other any more after the act of

fertilization Fertilisation or fertilization (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give ...

. The female can kill or eat the male if he stays close.

References

External links

* *http://www.frogfish.ch/species-arten/Antennarius-maculatus.html *http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Antennarius-maculatus.html *http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=164556 *http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=217850 * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1477089 Warty frogfish Fish described in 1840 Taxa named by Julien Desjardins