[4] The genus Lophiodes is one of 4 extant genera in the family Lophiidae which the 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies in the monotypic suborder Lophioidei with the order Lophiiformes.

Lophius means "mane" and is presumably a reference to the first 3spines of the first dorsal fin which are tentacle like, with 3 smaller spines behind them.

[2] Lophiodes mutilus has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution from the eastern coast of Africa from the Gulf of Aden[1] to KwaZulu-Natal[7] east through the Indian Ocean and into the Western Pacific Ocean north to Japan east as far as Wallis and Futuna and south to Australia.

In Australia it occurs from Shark Bay north and east as far as Cape Everard in Victoria.

[1] It is a bathydemersal fish found at depths between 234 and 760 m (768 and 2,493 ft) on the continental shelf and upper slope.