Antennarioidei was first proposed as a taxonomic grouping in 1912 by the English ichthyologistCharles Tate Regan.[1] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies this taxon as one of the five suborders in the order Lophiiformes. It and the suborders Chaunacoidei, Ogocephaloidei, and Ceratioidei, are more derived than their basal sister group the Lophioidei.[2] In some phylogenies the suborder Antennarioidei is the most basal of the Lophiiformes suborders other than Lophioidei.[3]
The relationships of the suborders within Lophiiformes as set out in Pietsch and Grobecker's 1987 Frogfishes of the world: systematics, zoogeography, and behavioral ecology is shown below.[3]
Antennarioidei is derived from Antennarius, the type genus of the family Antennaridae. Antennarius suffixes -iustoantenna, an allusion to first dorsal spine being adapted into a tentacle on the snout used as a lure to attract prey.[4]
Antennarioidei fishes are characterised by the first dorsal fin being made up of three separate spines on the head, the first being the illicium with the second sometimes being short, although this spine is not everr embedded within the skin. The pterygiophores of the first dorsal spine and the third dorsal spine have highly compressed dorsal expansions. The interhyal has a central backwards directed process that touches the preoperculum.[2]
Antennarioidei fishes are found in the tropical and subtropical oceans of the world, although this applies only to the Antennaridae, the other three families being confined to the seas around Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia.[2]
