Scorpaenopsis papusensis was first formally described as Scorpaena papuensis in 1829 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier with the type locality given as New Guinea.

[3] The specific name is the suffix -ensis added to Papua, another name for New Guinea, indicating the type locality.

[2] This species may be distinguished from the similar raggy scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis venosa) by having a flattened intraorbital space with no occipital pit.

[6] Scorpaenopsis papuensis is found in the Indo-West Pacific from western Indonesia to French Polynesia, north as far as the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan and south to the Great Barrier Reef and New Caledonia.

[2][1] Scorpaenopsis papuensis is a solitary, cryptic species which is an ambush predator of fishes,[2] waiting for prey to approach near enough to be engulfed by its mouth and eaten.