Family Ogcocephalidae
Taxonomy: Large family with 10 genera and about 68 species; currently 4 genera and 7 described species are known from Australia, with numerous undescribed and provisionally named species in Australian collections; the family is currently being revised.
Distribution, ecology and habitat: Worldwide in all tropical and subtropical seas; mostly demersal on the continental shelf and upper slope (except Coelophrys).
Characteristics:
Usually strongly depressed fishes (except for genus Coelophrys), head large, forming a circular or triangular disc, eyes moderate, dorsally placed; esca partly concealed in cavity between overhanging snout tip and mouth; mouth small, jaw teeth minute, in rows; gill opening small, round, directed dorsally behind pectoral-fin base. Dorsal fin small (rarely absent), halfway between disc and caudal fin, with 4-7 short rays; anal fin slender, with 3 or 4 rays; pectoral fins elongate, arm-like, attached to sides of disc; pelvic fins attached to ventral surface of disc anterior to pectoral fins. Scales modified, forming conical tubercles or bucklers of various sizes; skin with hair-like cirri, fleshy neuromasts of lateral-line system visible on ventral margins of disc and along sides of tail.
Size: to 25 cm.
Food and feeding: Carnivourous predators, feeding on small invertebrates (molluscs, polychaete worms, small curstaceans) and small fishes.
Reproduction and early life history: Oviparous. Little known of spawning and larval development; as in other anglerfishes, scrolled ovaries presumably produce buoyant gelatinous egg rafts. Larvae deep-bodied, head large, dermal sac strongly inflated, very large early-forming pectoral and pelvic fins; illicium forms during postflexion.
Fisheries: Of no commercial importance. Although rarely consumed, batfishes are frequently taken as bycatch in commercial fisheries.
Remarks: The esca is usually a gland-like structure which can extend slightly in front of the mouth and produces a substance which may function as a chemical lure.
Australian species:
- Dibranchus japonicus Amaoka & Toyoshima, 1981 Japanese Seabat CAAB 37212007
- Halicmetus reticulatus Smith & Radcliffe, 1912 Marbled Seabat
- Halieutaea brevicauda Ogilby, 1910 Shortfin Seabat CAAB 37212001
- Halieutaea coccinea Alcock, 1889 Scarlet Seabat CAAB 37212008
- Halieutaea fumosa Alcock, 1894 Smoky Seabat CAAB 37212009
- Halieutaea stellata (Vahl, 1797) Starry Seabat CAAB 37212002
- Malthopsis lutea Alcock, 1891 Longnose Seabat CAAB 37212006
References:
Bradbury, M.G. 1967. The genera of batfishes (Ogcocephalidae). Copeia 1967: 339-422.
Bradbury, M.G. 1988. Rare fishes of the deep-sea genus Halieutopsis: a review with descriptions of four new species (Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae). Fieldiana Zool. 44: 1-22.
Bradbury, M.G. 1999a. A review of the genus Dibranchus with descriptions of new species and a new genus Solocisquama, (Lophiiformes; Ogcocephalidae). Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 15(5): 259-310.
Bradbury, M.G. 1999. Ogcocephalidae. Batfishes. Pp. 2023-2025, In Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem. Species identification guide for fisheries purposes. The living marine resources of the western central Pacific. Batoid fishes, chimeras and bony fishes. Part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome.
Endo, E. & G. Shinohara. 1999. A new batfish, Coelophrys bradburyae (Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae) from Japan, with comments on the evolutionary relationships of the genus. Ichthyol. Res. 46(4): 359-365.
Pietsch, T.W. & Kenaley, C.P. 2005. Ogcocephalidae. Batfishes. Version 31 October 2005 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Ogcocephalidae/22028/2005.10.31 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
Watson, W. & M. Bradbury. 2000. Ogcocephalidae (Batfishes). In Leis, J.M. & B.M. Carson-Ewart. (eds). 2000. The larvae of Indo-Pacific coastal fishes. An identification guide to marine fish larvae. (Fauna Malesiana Handbooks 2). E.J. Brill, Leiden. 870 pp.