It is widespread in the Eastern Atlantic from the Bay of Biscay to Senegal, Madeira, Azores and the Canary Islands, including the Mediterranean (rare in northern Adriatic)[2] and the Black Sea.

[3] The small red scorpionfish was first formally described in 1810 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque with the type locality given as Sicily.

[4] The specific name notata means "marked", an allusion to the large black spot on the spiny part of the dorsal fin.

The colour of this fish is generally reddish-brown and there is a large, semicircular pigmented spot between the sixth and tenth dorsal spines.

Its range extends southwards from the Bay of Biscay to Madeira, the Azores, the Canary Islands and the northwestern coast of Africa as far south as Senegal.