Short, stocky and wart-covered, often with a pale saddle. Rubble and sponge in the shallows.
A small frogfish, to about 15 cm and often nearer 8. It carries the best lure in the family: the esca is a remarkably accurate imitation of a small fish or shrimp, flat, mottled white and brown, banded vertically, and with an actual eyespot. The rod is about twice the length of the second dorsal spine and banded. The second and third dorsal spines are attached to the head by a thin membrane, which distinguishes it from the thick, bulbous, spinulose spines of the giant frogfish. The skin is very warty — the origin of the name and visible in any reasonable photograph. Ground colour runs cream, yellow, white, pink, red, rust, brown, orange-brown or black, scattered with dark round light-edged spots and saddles. Two further marks are strong: red or orange margins to all the fins, and irregular patches radiating from the eye, the largest of them triangular. Against the painted frogfish: esca first, then skin, then the triangular eye patch here versus three light-edged caudal ocelli there.
The shallowest of the group, generally between 1 and 20 m, on sheltered rocky and coral reef among algae, sponges and soft corals. Behaviour is as for the rest of the family — the six-millisecond strike, the walking gait on pectoral and pelvic fins, the rod withdrawn into a groove between the dorsal spines when not in use and regrown if lost, and eggs bound into a gelatinous raft.
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.