''Lophius piscatorius'', commonly known as the anglerfish, frog fish, fishing frog, monk, European angler, common monkfish, sea devil, or devil fish, is a
monkfish in the family
Lophiidae. It is found in coastal waters of the northeast
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
, from the
Barents Sea to the
Strait of Gibraltar, the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
and the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
. Within some of its range, including the
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...
, this species comprises a significant
commercial fishery.
Taxonomy
''Lophius piscatorius'' was first formally
described by
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in the
10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' given as "''in Oceano Europæo''", meaning the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black Seas with localities mentioned including
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
,
Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
and
Montpellier
Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...
in France;
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
,
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
,
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
in Italy;
Lesbos in Greece; and Syria.
When Linnaeus described this species he created a new
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
, ''
Lophius''. In 1883,
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...
and
Charles Henry Gilbert designated this species as the
type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
of that genus.
The genus ''Lophius'' is one of four extant genera in the family Lophiidae, which 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 in the
monotypic
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 "unisp ...
suborder Lophioidei within the order Lophiiformes.
Etymology
''Lophius piscatorius'' has the genus name ''Lophius'' which means "mane" and is presumably a reference to the first three spines of the first dorsal fin which are tentacle like, with three smaller spines behind them. The
specific name ''piscatorius'', this means "of fishing", this is a reference to the first dorsal spine being modified into a "fishing rod", called the
illicium tipped with a lure, the
esca, which is used to attract prey within reach of the huge mouth.
Description
The average size of European anglers is , with larger specimens exceeding this range. Precise ranges in body size tend to vary between different localities and populations. Average size also tends to increase with depth; populations living in deeper waters are larger-bodied overall than shallow-water ones.
It has a very large head which is broad, flat, and depressed; the rest of the body appears to be a mere appendage. The wide mouth extends all the way around the anterior circumference of the head, and both jaws are armed with bands of long, pointed
teeth. These are inclined inwards and can be closed so as to offer no impediment to an object gliding towards the stomach, but to prevent its escape from the mouth.
The
pectoral and
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 are articulated as to perform the functions of feet, so the fish is able to walk along the bottom of the sea, where it generally hides in the
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...
or amongst
seaweed. Around its head and also along the body, the skin bears fringed appendages resembling short fronds of seaweed, a structure which, combined with the ability to match the colour of the body to its surroundings, assists this fish in
camouflaging itself in the places which it selects on account of the abundance of prey. It has no
scales.
The ovaries of female anglers take the form of two long, ribbon-like lobes connected at their posterior ends. One side consists of an egg-producing layer, while the other produces a gelatinous secretion that fills the ovarian
lumen during egg maturation. During the reproductive season, the ovaries swell until they fill the abdominal cavity. Male testes are elongated and bean-shaped in cross-section. Spermatogenesis begins in sac-like cysts and is completed in the lumina.
Habitat
The European angler inhabits muddy and sandy bottoms up to depths of . It is occasionally found on rocky bottoms as well.
They rarely occur below the
continental slope.
Behaviour
Feeding

The fish has long filaments along the middle of its head, which are, in fact, the detached and modified three first spines of the anterior
dorsal fin. The filament most important to the angler is the first, which is the longest, terminates in a lappet, and is movable in every direction. The angler is believed to attract other fish by means of its
lure, and then to seize them with its enormous jaws. While it is considered probable that smaller fish are attracted in this way experiments have shown that the actions of the jaw is automatic and depends on the contact of the prey with the tentacle. Its stomach is expandable and it is not unheard of for these fish to swallow prey of their own size.
Adult anglers feed primarily on fish, while juveniles prey mainly on marine invertebrates.
Norway pout is the most common prey item in Northern European waters, while
blue whiting is more common among southern population.
Whiting and
Norway lobster are among the main prey of adult anglers in the
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...
.
Lesser sandeel is a seasonally common prey item around the
Shetland Islands. Cephalopods are an important food source in the
Cantabrian Sea.
In 1940, an angler was discovered with a
herring gull in its stomach, and it is known to surface and attempt to capture waterbirds.
Breeding and lifecycle
The
spawn of the angler consists of a thin sheet of transparent gelatinous material wide and long drifting freely in the water. The eggs in this sheet are in a single layer, each in its own little cavity. The
larva
A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...
e are free-swimming and their
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 are elongated into filaments.
As many as 300,000 to 2,800,000 eggs may be released in a single spawning.
The egg sheets are buoyant and float near the surface of the water, where the action of wind and surface currents may aid dispersal.
A male angler matures at the age of four years and grows to be long; whereas the female angler takes two years longer to mature.
The primary spawning season is distributed between February and June, peaking in spring. A secondary spawning season occurs in November and December, although with a lower percentage of actively reproducing individuals than observed in the primary season.
Relationship with humans
''Lophius piscatorius'' has historically been considered valuable bycatch in Atlantic fisheries. Captures increased significantly following the development of improvements in deep-water fishing technology. The species has been an important fishery resource in Iberian waters since the 1980s. The related species ''
Lophius budegassa'' is often caught alongside it, but ''L. piscatorius'' is the more abundant of the two.
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38 (2006) 742–754
*
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{{Authority control
Lophius
Marine fish of North Africa
Marine fish of Europe
Fish of the East Atlantic
Fish of the Black Sea
Fish of the Mediterranean Sea
Fish of the North Sea
Fish described in 1758
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus