Halieutopsis galatea, the Galathea deepsea batfish, is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Ogcocephalidae, the deep sea batfishes. This fish is found in the Indian Ocean.
Halieutopsis galatea was first formally described in 1988 by the American ichthyologist Margaret G. Bradbury with its type locality given as off Kenya in the Indian Ocean at 4°00'S, 41°27'E from a depth of . The genus Halieutopsis is classified within the "Indo-Pacific clade" of the family Ogcocephalidae.[1] The family Ogcocephalidae is classified in the monotypic suborder Ogcocephaloidei within the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.[2]
Halieutopsis galatea has the genus name Halieutopsis which suffixes opsis, meaning "looking like" to halieut which is derived from halieutaea, Greek for an "angler" or "fisherman". This name is a reference to this genus' resemblance to the genus Halieutaea. The specific name galatea is the name of a sea nymph but refers to the Danish research vessel Galathea, from which the type specimen was collected during the Danish Deep-Sea Expedition Round the World of 1950-1952.[3]
Halieutopsis galatea has the head and body which is disk shaped and is highly flattened and rounded with a rostrum that just overhangs the mouth. The space between the eyes is relatively small. Tubercles cover the entire body including the surface of the lower body, there are smaller tubercles lying between the main tubercles while the main tubercles on the snout and caudal peduncle are simple. Only the middle third of each jaw has teeth. The upper lobe of the esca is a flap and has 2 small cirri on its tip and two pairs of flaps on each side.[4] The iilicia cavity is a deep north when viewed from the front. There is a well developed subopercular spine. The overall colour is pale greyish with a dusky network pattern on the upper body around the main tubercles.[5] This species has a maximum published standard length of .
Halieutopsis galatea is found in the eastern Indian Ocean where it has been recorded from off Kenya, the Seychelles Bank and off Madagascar and in the western Indian Ocean in the Timor Sea where there are records from south of Ashmore and Cartier Islands.[5] Smaller specimens tend to be caught at much shallower depths, between than larger specimens which have been taken from, this may be because the adults are found in deeper areas than the juveniles.[4]