A heavy-headed southern scorpionfish that sits on sand beside reef, relying on camouflage rather than movement.
To about 40 cm, heavy-headed, red-brown and mottled, on sand and rubble beside temperate reef in southern Australia. It looks like a scorpionfish and behaves like one, and it is in a different family.
The dorsal, anal and pelvic spines are all venomous. It sits still on open ground in the exact places a diver settles to photograph something else, and the sting is painful enough to end a dive. Hot water and medical attention.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
