Named for the banded pectoral fins, which are only visible when the fish moves.
A small Scorpaenopsis to about 14 cm, brown mottled with white, with a broad spiny head, widely spaced eyes and a strongly arched back. At rest it is close to indistinguishable from the raggy, tasselled and devil scorpionfishes, which share the same shape and the same habit of sitting still on the bottom. The character that separates it is on the inner face of the pectoral fin, which is yellow and orange with a broad black band near the margin, and which is shown only when the fish moves or spreads its fins. The nasal spine carries two to six points, distinguishing it from the very similar Scorpaenopsis neglecta, but that is a specimen character rather than a field one.
It sits on sand, rubble and low weed and takes small fish and crustaceans by opening the mouth suddenly rather than by pursuit. Recorded between about 1 and 80 m, from western and north-western Australia through the Moluccas and the Philippines and east into the central Pacific. Because the diagnostic marking is hidden at rest, an identification usually depends on catching the fish as it resettles of its own accord: it moves a short distance with the pectorals spread, then folds them flat again, and the fins are open for a second or two at each end of that move. A fish photographed only at rest is normally recorded as Scorpaenopsis sp. and left there.
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.
