Family BATRACHOIDIDAE

Batrachoididae

© Copyright Ros Poole.

Batrachomoeus dubius from Sydney

© Copyright A.R. McCulloch 1914

Museums

Regional Maps

External Links

Introduction

Worldwide, the Batrachoididae comprise approximately 80 species in 23 genera (Nelson 2006; Eschmeyer & Fong 2011). The Australian frogfishes were revised by Hutchins (1976) who recognised two genera and eight species. Subsequently, an apparently introduced species was found in Australia. All but one of the Australian species are endemic. Greenfield (1999) treated some tropical Australian species. Greenfield et al. (2008) reviewed the generic classification. MIya et al. (2005) discussed relationships of the family.

Batrachoidids are widely distributed in most tropical and subtropical seas. One apparent introduction from North America is known. Batrachoidids generally inhabit coral reefs, sand or mud flats, estuaries and deeper offshore trawling grounds to depths of at least 180 m. Frogfishes are bottom dwellers that shelter in crevices or under rocks, or bury themselves in sand or mud. Their diet consists of benthic invertebrates and fishes. The maximum size for the Australian species is about 27 cm standard length.

General References

Eschmeyer, W.N. & Fong, J.D. 2011. Species of Fishes by family/subfamily. On-line version dated dd mmm yyyy.. http://research.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/SpeciesByFamily.asp

Greenfield, D.W. 1999. Family Batrachoididae. pp. 1999-2003 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 3 pp. 1397-2068.

Greenfield, D.W., Winterbottom, R. & Collette, B.B. 2008. Review of the toadfish genera (Teleostei: Batrachoididae). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 4 59(15): 665-710 [Date published 31 Dec.]

Hutchins, J.B. 1976. A revision of the Australian frogfishes. Records of the Western Australian Museum 4(1): 3-43 figs 1-17

McCulloch, A.R. 1914. Notes on some Western Australian fishes. Records of the Western Australian Museum 1(3): 211-227 fig. 1 pls 19-31 [225]

Miya, M., Satoh, T.P. & Nishida, M. 2005. The phylogenetic position of toadfishes (order Batrachoidiformes) in the higher ray-finned fish as inferred from partitioned Bayesian analysis of 102 whole mitochondrial genome sequences. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 85(3): 289-306

Nelson, J.S. 2006. Fishes of the World. Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 601 pp.

Common Name References

Greenfield, D.W. 1999. Family Batrachoididae. pp. 1999-2003 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 3 pp. 1397-2068. [1999] (FAO) (Toadfishes)

Sainsbury, K.J., Kailola, P.J. & Leyland, G.G. 1984. Continental Shelf Fishes of Northern and North-Western Australia. Canberra : Fisheries Information Service 375 pp. figs & pls. [76] (Frogfishes)

Whitley, G.P. 1948. A list of the fishes of Western Australia. Western Australia Fish Department. Fisheries Bulletin 2: 1-35 map [28] (Bastard Stonefish)

History of changes