German naturalist Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius formally described the red Irish lord in 1811 as Cottus hemilepidotus,[1] from material collected off Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Kamchatka Peninsula.

[3] The species (and genus) name is derived from the Ancient Greek words hemi "half", lepis "scale", and ous, otis "ear".

[2] The genus was erected in 1829 by French zoologist Georges Cuvier in the second edition of his work Le Règne Animal.

They are found mostly along the coastal waters of the Northern Pacific Ocean, from the Bering Sea in Russia, to Alaska, to the Western coast of the U.S. as far as Monterey Bay in California, although rare that far south.

[3] Red Irish lords are sculpins, and therefore benthic, bottom-dwelling fish that inhabit mostly shallow waters, but can live at deeper depths.

[2] Their hunting strategy and camouflaged coloration lend themselves to hiding at the sea floor among sand, rocks and other marine life, while waiting to ambush prey.

[2] The red Irish lord is a carnivorous ambush predator, using its camouflage to blend in with the ocean floor, where it sits motionless and waits to strike at passing prey.

Living mostly on the bottom, its main food sources are crabs, small fish, shrimp, mussels, and barnacles.