Angler is any of an order of fishes Lophiiformes, with flattened body and broad head and jaws. Many species have small, plant-like tufts on their skin. These act as camouflage for the fish as it waits, either floating among seaweed or lying on the sea bottom, twitching the enlarged tip of the threadlike first ray of its dorsal fin to entice prey. There are over 200 species of angler fish, living in both deep and shallow water in temperate and tropical seas. The males of some species have become so small that they live as parasites on the females.
The British species, Lophius piscatorius is also from its habits and appearance called the Fishing-frog and Sea-devil. It is a remarkable fish often coasts. It is from 1 to 1.5 meters long; the head is very wide, depressed, with protuberances, and bearing long separate movable tendrils; the mouth is capacious, and armed with formidable teeth. Its voracity is extreme, and it is said to lie concealed in the mud, and attract the smaller fishes within its reach by gently waving the filamentous appendages on its head. Research Angler
Abbreviations
Nature
Research Angler