Every now and then some "new critter" comes along and captures everyone's attention. At the moment it seems to be the rhinopias, a member of the scorpionfish family that has a turned up snout rather like a rhinoceros.

This particular genus has eight members: aphanes, arguably, cea, eschmeyeri, filamentosa, frondosa, godfreyi and xenops.
Of these, only aphanes and frondosa are seen on any regular basis.

Or are they? As there is so little photographic evidence of them, it's hard to know exactly which one you are looking at. Even a web search won't bring up images of some, or when it does it's often contradictory.

Rhinopias in their various forms can be seen in most tropical and subtropical seas and often use their decorative skin patterns as camouflage. The aphanes (lacy) can be particularly hard to spot especially when a dark colour or sitting on a complex piece of reef.

Rhinopias species identified with assistance from Scott Michael at Coral Realm

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