The starry handfish, ''Halieutaea stellata'', is a batfish of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Ogcocephalidae Ogcocephalidae is a family of anglerfish specifically adapted for a benthic lifestyle of crawling about on the seafloor. Ogcocephalid anglerfish are sometimes referred to as batfishes,continental shelves A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

of the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

oceans at depths of between 50 and 400 m. They are up to 30 cm long.

References

* * Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, ''Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand'', (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.ART.537 - Halieutaea stellata - Kawahara Keiga - Siebold Collection.jpg, Halieutaea stellata by

Kawahara Keiga Kawahara Keiga ( ja, 川原慶賀, also known as Taguchi Takumi or Toyosuke, Nagasaki, 1786–1860?) was a late Edo period Japanese painter of plants, fishes, birds, reptiles, crustaceans, social scenes, landscapes and portraits at the Dutch Facto ...

, around 1825. File:Halieutaea stellata by DaijuAzuma.jpg, Takeshima Aquarium, Aichi pref. Japan, 2015 Ogcocephalidae Fish described in 1797 {{Lophiiformes-stub