[3] Lophius setigerus was first formally described in 1797 by the Danish-Norwegian botanist, herbalist and zoologist Martin Vahl with its type locality given as "China, western Pacific Ocean".

[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.

The ridges on the frontal, maxllary and dentary bones have a covering of conical spines which makes then rough.

[2] Lophiomus has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution from the eastern African coast between the Red Sea in the north to South Africa, through the Indian Ocean, including the Persian Gulf, east into the Pacific Ocean as far east as Fiji and Marshall Islands, north to Japan and south to Australia and New Caledonia.

[2] Lophiomus was, in the past, a species caught only as bycatch but it is now a target for commercial fisheries in China, Japan and Korea.