Caulophryne bacescui of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Caulophrynidae, the fanfins or hairy anglerfishes.

Caulophryne bacescui was first formally described in 1982 by the Romanian biologist Alina Mihai-Bardan from a single specimen taken from the Peru Trench in the Eastern Pacific Ocean off western South America.

Its use may date as far back as Aristotle and Cicero, who referred to anglerfishes as "fishing-frogs" and "sea-frogs", respectively, possibly because of their resemblance to frogs and toads.

The specific name honours the Romanian zoologist Mihai C. Băcescuof the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History, who was a participant in the 1965 cruise on which the holotype was obtained.

[1] This speciemn was a metamorphosed, i.e. adult, female and differed from other species within Caulophryne by having no filaments on its illicium, having 46 teeth in its upper jaw, a similar number to C. polynema and by having relatively low ray counts in the dorsal and anal fins, 15 and 14 closest to C.