Lophius piscatorius

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This article is about the fish. For the person who engages in the activity of angling, see Fisherman.

Angler

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Lophiiformes
Family:	Lophiidae
Genus:	Lophius
Species:	L. pisctorius

Binomial name

Lophius piscatorius
Linnaeus, 1758

The angler, also sometimes called fishing-frog, frog-fish or sea-devil, Lophius piscatorius, is a monkfish in the family Lophiidae. It is found in coastal waters of the northeast Atlantic, from the Barents Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

1 External anatomy
2 Male angler
3 Angling
4 Lifecycle
5 References

[edit] External anatomy

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 overall appearance is grotesque.

The pectoral and pelvic fins are so articulated as to perform the functions of feet, so that the fish is able to walk along the bottom of the sea, where it generally hides itself in the sand or amongst seaweed. All round its head and also along the body the skin bears fringed appendages resembling short fronds of seaweed, a structure which, combined with the extraordinary faculty of assimilating the colour of the body to its surroundings, assists this fish greatly in camouflaging itself in the places which it selects on account of the abundance of prey.

Female anglers grow to a length of more than 2 m.

[edit] Male angler

The male angler for a while was thought to be a separate fish altogether due to its vast physical difference from its female counterpart. The male is much smaller than the female, about 20-30% of the female's size. It has no lure. In order to survive with these handicaps, the male must find a female, and attach himself to the female by biting into her skin. When he bites he releases an enzyme that digests the female's skin, as well as that of his mouth. The male now lives forever as a parasite and degenerates, fusing himself with the female's body. He gains nourishment from her bloodstream, and eventually the male becomes just a pair of gonads, releasing sperm as required.

[edit] Angling

Lophius piscatorius

The fish also has three 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 fishes by means of its lure, and then to seize them with its enormous jaws. It is probable enough that smaller fish are attracted in this way, but experiments have shown that the action of the jaws is automatic and depends on contact of the prey with the tentacle. Its stomach is distensible in an extraordinary degree, and not rarely fishes have been taken out quite as large and heavy as their destroyer.

[edit] Lifecycle

The spawn of the angler is very remarkable. It consists of a thin sheet of transparent gelatinous material 2 or 3 feet broad (60–90 cm) and 25 to 30 feet (8 or 9 metres) in length. The eggs in this sheet are in a single layer, each in its own little cavity. The spawn is free in the sea. The larvae are free-swimming and have the pelvic fins elongated into filaments.