Ogcocephalidae Gill, 1893, 1837

Golani, Daniel, Fricke, Ronald & Appelbaum-Golani, Brenda, 2022, First record of the batfish, Halieutaea indica (Actinopterygii: Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae), from the Red Sea, Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 52 (2), pp. 101-105 : 101

Family Ogcocephalidae Gill, 1893

Halieutaea indica Annandale et Jenkins, 1910 (their figs. 1, 2, and 3)

Halieutaea indica Annandale et Jenkins, 1910: 19, pl. 2 (fig. 4) (Bay of Bengal, off Orissa coast, India).

Lophie faujas Lacepède, 1798: 318, pl. 11 (figs. 2-3) (no locality; appeared as vernacular name only; not available, nomen nudum).

Lophius muricatus Shaw, 1804: 382, pl. 162 (no locality; based on the " Lophie faujas " of Lacepède 1798; not treated as valid after 1900).

Astrocanthus stellatus Swainson, 1839: 331, fig. 108 (no locality stated; based on the " Lophie faujas " of Lacepède, 1798; preoccupied by Lophius stellatus Vahl, 1797 when both are in Halieutaea ).

Halieutaea sinica Tchang et Chang, 1964: 156, pl. 1 (figs. 1-3) (Swamei, Guandong Province, China).

Halieutea spicata Smith, 1965: 39, pl. 11 (fig. A) (Isipingo, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, southwestern Indian Ocean).

Material.

HUJ 10625 , 1 specimen, 77.2 mm SL, Eritrea, Southern Red Sea, Coll. O. Oren, Feb. 1958 ,

Description of HUJ 10625.

Head and body round and depressed, width subequal to length. Upper surface and tail densely covered with broad-base tubercle spines, most of them bicuspid or tricuspid. Ventral surface sparsely covered with minute spinules. Tail round in cross section, its length four times in SL. Mouth with small fine teeth, its width 4.7 in SL. Eyes in dorsal position, their diameter 10.9 times in SL. Interorbital slightly depressed, 6.3 times in SL. Small dorsal fin in posterior position with four rays. Pectoral fins with shape of “elbow” with ten rays well distanced from each other, their length 3.1 times in SL. Prepectoral length 1.5 times in SL. Ventral fins with a single spine and four rays, its length 4.2 times in SL. Preventral distance 2.6 times in SL. 22 vertebrae.

Color.

Dorsal surface grayish-brown, spines lighter in color, ventral surface light grayish-beige, pectoral and ventral fins brown.