Mottled waspfish of silty inshore sand, poorly recorded. Venomous dorsal spines.
A stocky waspfish to about 15 cm, brown to grey and marbled in darker mottling that breaks the outline against silt, with a large rough-boned head, a wide mouth and small skin flaps scattered over the body. The dorsal fin begins over the eye and its forward spines are strong and venomous. It is less compressed than Ablabys, which is leaf-thin and holds a continuous sail, and it lacks the free pectoral rays of Inimicus didactylus and Choridactylus multibarbus. The whiteface waspfish Richardsonichthys leucogaster is the nearest thing to it on the same ground and is smaller, with a pale head and belly.
Lies part-buried or motionless on soft sediment, relying on the mottling, and moves little. Feeds on small crustaceans and fish. It is a shallow-water, inshore animal, associated with silty and estuarine bottoms and reported from turbid conditions where visibility is poor, which is part of why it is seen so seldom on dives.
Recorded from very shallow water to about 20 m. The record for this species in the muck-diving destinations is thin: it is a valid and widespread Indo-West Pacific fish, but sightings are infrequently reported and identifications are often provisional, so the depth and frequency given here should be read as indicative rather than settled.
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.
