View source for devilfish

==English==

===Alternative forms===
* {{alter|en|devil-fish|devil fish}}

===Etymology===
{{com+|en|devil|fish}}.

===Pronunciation===
* {{audio|en|LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-devilfish.wav|a=US}}

===Noun===
{{en-noun|+|devilfish}}

# {{lb|en|dated}} {{n-g|Any of several not closely related marine animals:}}
## The [[octopus]].
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Our Islands and Their People as Seen with Camera and Pencil|passage=The unattractive reptilian specimen in the man’s right hand is an octopus, or '''devilfish''', which constitutes a favorite dish with the Asiatics of the islands.|year=1899|author=Jose de Olivares|page=470|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/ourislandstheirp0002oliv/page/470/mode/1up|publisher=Thompson Pub. Co|location=St. Louis, M.O.; New York, N.Y.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Animal Communities in Temperate America|passage=We have all heard of the octopus or '''devil-fish''', with its long arms covered with powerful suckers, which is always waiting to seize the unsuspecting, choke and bite him, always grasping with another arm when the grip of one of them is loosened—suitable symbol of the trust.|year=1913|author=w:Victor Ernest Shelford|page=5|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/animalcommuniti00shel/page/n24/mode/1up|publisher=w:University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, I.L.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Atolls of the Sun|passage=The '''devilfish''' felt the menace of his attitude, and his two longest tentacles began to writhe in the air, as he measured our distance.|year=1922|author=w:Frederick O'Brien|pages=164–165|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/atollsofsunwithm00obriuoft/page/164/mode/2up|publisher=w:McClelland & Stewart|location=Toronto, ON}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=General Zoology|passage=The '''devilfishes''', or octopuses, vary from 2 inches to 28 feet in spread. They have a flexible bulbous body without a shell and eight long sucker-bearing tentacles.|year=1951|author=w:Tracy I. Storer|page=435|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/generalzoology2nd00stor/page/435/mode/1up|publisher=w:McGraw Hill|location=New York, N.Y.; Toronto, ON; London}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title={{w|Passage to Juneau|Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings}}|passage=This bloody tinge drew the attention of a giant octopus, or "'''devilfish'''," who lived in the deep. Rising to the surface, "looking very white" (as a dead tentacle does, though a live octopus does not), it extended a single mammoth tentacle, encircled the fish camp, and swept it into the sea, gorging itself on the people and smashing their canoes.|year=1999|author=w:Jonathan Raban|page=46|isbn=0-679-44262-6|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/passagetojuneausaba/page/46/mode/1up|publisher=w:Pantheon Books|location=New York, N.Y.}}
## The [[giant squid]] or [[kraken]].
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Life on the Seashore, Or, Animals of Our Coasts and Bay|passage=It can easily be imagined that such creatures as these could drown a man, or upset a boat, and they have furnished material for many fabulous accounts of sea-serpents and '''devil-fishes'''.|year=1880|author=w:James Henry Emerton|page=94|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/cu31924031246303/page/n131/mode/1up|publisher=George A. Bates|location=Salem, M.A.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Greek and Roman mythology and Heroic Legend|passage=At the bottom of the story of Skylla may lie a sailor's tale of the kraken or '''devil-fish''', which sometimes grows to a gigantic size; Charybdis is obviously nothing but a dangerous whirlpool.|year=1901|author=H[ermann] Steuding|page=53|translator=w:Lionel D. Barnett|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/greekandromanmyt00steuuoft/page/n68/mode/1up|publisher=Dent|location=London}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Half Hours With the Lower Animals|passage='''Devilfishes''' have been discovered in various seas, which weighed several hundred pounds, and whose length ranged from fifty to seventy or more feet.|year=1905|author=w:Charles Frederick Holder|page=117|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/halfhourswithlow00holdrich/page/117/mode/1up|publisher=w:American Book Company|location=New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, O.H.; Chicago, I.L.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=At school in the Cannibal Islands|passage="Doctor," inquired Charley, "would you call the kraken or '''devil-fish''' a legendary or real sea-serpent?"|year=1909|author=w:Edwin J. Houston|page=139|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/atschoolincannib00hous/page/138/mode/1up|publisher=Griffith & Rowland Press|location=Boston, M.A.; Chicago, I.L.; St. Louis, M.O.; Atlanta, G.A.; Dallas, T.X.}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=The Horror had besides eight or ten long tentacles studded with suckers like those of the giant squid or '''devil-fish'''. These measured at least thirty feet—thick as a man's thigh near the creature's body, fining down at their extremities like the tip of an elephant's trunk.|title=The Deep-Sea Kraken|work=w:The Argonaut|year=1913|page=302|editor=w:Alfred Holman|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/argonaut721913sanf/page/302/mode/1up|volume=72}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Dwellers of The Sea and Shore|passage=Old books--many of them dating back to the last two centuries--contain pictures and descriptions of huge '''devilfishes''' overwhelming and capsizing ships with their tentacles.|year=1923|author=William Crowder|page=198|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/dwellersofseasho0000unse/page/198/mode/1up|publisher=w:The Macmillan Company|location=New York, N.Y.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=My Seventy Years|passage=The trail led through a scrub pine forest where we tripped over bare roots of trees that curled over and around rocks and boulders like great '''devilfishes'''.|year=1939|author=w:Martha Black; Elizabeth Bailey Price|page=108|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/myseventyyears0000unse/page/108/mode/1up|publisher=w:Thomas Nelson and Sons|location=London [and others]|footer=<small>Possibly referring to octopuses.</small>}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=The Animal Kingdom|passage=Today they are represented by only a few hundred species, but these include such fascinating animals as the octopus, the giant '''devilfish''' (or giant squid, which is the largest animal without a backbone), the paper nautilus, and the pearly nautilus.|year=1965|author=w:Robert T. Orr|page=99|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/animalkingdom0000orrr/page/99/mode/1up|publisher=w:The Macmillan Company|location=New York, N.Y.}}
## The [[gray whale]], {{taxfmt|Eschrichtius robustus|species}}.
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=The California gray whale, or '''devil-fish''' (Rhachianectes glaucus), is found only in the North Pacific, and is an object of pursuit by the shore stations established along that coast.|title=The American-Whale Fishery|work={{w|Science (journal)|Science}}|year=1887|author=A. Howard Clark|page=323|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/science05unkngoog/page/323/mode/1up|issue=217|volume=9|publisher=w:American Association for the Advancement of Science|location=New York, N.Y.|footer=<small>''Rhachianectes glaucus'' in an older scientific name for the same species.</small>}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Men & Whales at Scammon's Lagoon|passage=The ''Sarah Warren'' returned with 1,100 bbls. of "'''devil fish'''" oil and 60 bbls. of sperm oil, and her tender, the ''Nevada'', returned with 74, bbls. of whale oil.|year=1972|author=David A. Henderson|page=270|isbn=0870932292|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/menwhalesatscamm0000hend/page/270/mode/1up|publisher=w:Dawson's Book Shop|location=Los Angeles, C.A.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=A History of the Hawaiian Islands|passage=Returning, arrived at Honolulu on April 6, with 330 barrels of '''devil fish''' oil. Discharged cargo and left again for the Arctic region the latter part of July, 1867, returning the latter part of October, with 850 barrels of oil.|year=1907|author=Daniel Logan|page=231|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/historyofhawaiia00loga/page/231/mode/1up|publisher=Lewis Publishing Company|location=New York, N.Y.; Chicago. I.L.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Whale Hunting with Gun and Camera|passage=Although twice the size of the killers and correspondingly strong, when one of the orcas appears the '''devilfish''' become terrified and either wildly dash for shore or turn belly up at the surface, with fins outspread, paralyzed by fright.|year=1916|author=w:Roy Chapman Andrews|page=197|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/whalehuntingwith00andrrich/page/197/mode/1up|publisher=w:D. Appleton & Company|location=New York, N.Y.}}
## The [[piranha]].
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=The same carnivorous instincts are likewise attributed to the '''devil-fish''', or piranha so common in the Rio San Francisco, and the terror of bathers.|title=Paraguay|work=w:The New Monthly Magazine|year=1860|page=461|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/newmonthlymagaz00hoodgoog/page/n222/mode/1up|volume=119|publisher=w:Chapman & Hall|location=London}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil|passage=It is a kind of sturgeon, scaleless, spotted and marbled, flat-muzzled and whiskered, like the "cats" (Silurus), which drown the negro boys fishing in the Mississippi waters, and ugly as any "'''devil-fish'''".|year=1869|author=w:Richard Francis Burton|page=162|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/explorationsofhi02burt/page/162/mode/1up|volume=2|publisher=w:Tinsley Brothers|location=London}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=The Apostles of Fylde Methodism|passage=The body of her husband was rescued from the sharks and '''devil-fishes''', and brought ashore for interment, with every mark of respect.|year=1885|author=John T. Taylor|page=113|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/apostlesfyldeme00taylgoog/page/n135/mode/1up|publisher=T. Woolmer|location=London|footer=<small>Uncertain; may refer to a different species.</small>}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=A court will decide sometime this year whether the piranha—South America’s deadly "'''devil fish'''" — can be a welcomed guest in California homes.|title=Dire Tropical Fish Gets Into State's Courts|work=w:Daily Independent Journal|year=1966|page=2|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/san-rafael-daily-independent-journal-1966-01-20/page/n1/mode/1up|issue=259|volume=105|issn=0891-5164}}
## The [[anglerfish]], {{taxfmt|Lophius piscatorius|species}}.
##* {{quote-journal|en|title=City and Suburban News|newspaper=w:The New York Times|page=2|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/NYTimes_nov15_30_1876/page/n1/mode/1up|location=New York, N.Y.|publisher=w:The New York Times Company|date=1876-11-16|issn=0362-4331|oclc=971436363|passage=The American angler, or '''devil fish''', which was placed In the Aquarium on Tuesday, was found dead in the tank yesterday morning. Mr. Coup, the manager, is making great effort to procure another specimen, as well as some strange fish from South America.}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=The four successful trawls yielded us examples of the Angler or '''Devil-fish''', ''Lophius piscatorius;'' {{...}}|title=Address to the Members of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club|work=Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-on-Tyne|year=1896|year_published=1900|author=Arthur Watts|page=179|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/transactionsofna9600natu/page/179/mode/1up|volume=13|publisher=w:Williams and Norgate|location=London}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=Vertical section through the freshly enucleated frozen eye of a '''devil-fish''' (Lophius piscatorius).|title=A Review of the Medical Sciences|work=w:The Practitioner|year=1899|page=208|volume=63|issn=0032-6518|publisher=John Briggs|location=London}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Guernsey|passage=Rock pools are a haven for crabs, crayfish, shrimp and '''devil fish'''.|year=2011|author=w:Insight Guides|page=81|isbn=9789812823243|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/guernsey0000unse_z6a2/page/81/mode/1up|publisher=APA Publications|location=London}}
## The [[suckermouth]] [[catfish]], {{taxlink|Hypostomus plecostomus|species}} ({{n-g|translating Spanish ''[[pez diablo]]''}}).
##* {{quote-web|en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205175814/https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Bay-Area-men-s-plan-to-market-invasive-fish-13045120.php|work=w:San Francisco Chronicle|passage=In the rivers of southern Mexico, a lizard-like fish with armor for skin has taken over the habitat of the native fish like róbalo and mojarra. Locals call it the ''pez diablo'', or '''devil fish''', and long assumed it was poisonous.|title=Bay Area men’s plan to market invasive fish from Mexico hits snag in U.S.|date=2018-07-02|author=Tara Duggan|brackets=on}}
##* {{quote-web|en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203125124/https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/invasive-species-mexico-devil-fish-jerky-1.4752176|work=w:CBC News|passage=But a U.S. law, aimed at protecting American catfish farmers from cheaper Asian imports, means there is effectively a ban on foreign catfish‚ including the suckermouth or '''devil fish''', from entering the U.S.|title=Entrepreneurs hope to sell Mexico's 'devil fish' to Canadians as a sustainable snack|date=2018-07-19}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage='''Devilfish''' is an invasive species of the Loricariidae family native to South America of the Amazon basin, but it has been introduced in several countries, as in Mexico. '''Devilfish''' has become an environmental problem in the country, at least in the last 20 years.|title=Evaluation of a biocoagulant from devilfish invasive species for the removal of contaminants in ceramic industry wastewater|work=w:Scientific Reports|year=2022|author=Flores et. al|volume=12|issn=2045-2322|doi=10.1038/s41598-022-14242-6|publisher=w:Nature Portfolio|location=London}}
##* {{quote-web|en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223171031/https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/environment/os-ne-devil-fish-invasion-20221203-narklsbemvcqxpieaajlefqpne-story.html|work=w:Orlando Sentinel|passage=In another alarm of nature spiraling to hell in Florida, scientists suspect global warming has enabled '''devil fish''' to plague and ravage the St. Johns River.|title=Climate change heats devil fish that possess St. Johns River|date=2022-12-03|author=Kevin Spear}}
## The [[manta ray]]; any [[ray]] in the [[genus]] {{taxfmt|Mobula|genus}}.
##* {{quote-book|en|title=American Big-game Hunting: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club|passage=Elliott's "South Carolina Field Sports" is a very interesting and entirely trustworthy record of the sporting side of existence on the old Southern plantations, and not only commemorates how the planters hunted bear, deer, fox, and wildcat in the cane-brakes, but also gives a unique description of harpooning the '''devil-fish''' in the warm Southern waters.|year=1893|author=w:Theodore Roosevelt; w:George Bird Grinnell|page=323|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/americanbiggameh00rooseve/page/323/mode/1up|publisher=Forest and Stream Publishing Co|location=New York, N.Y.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=The Story Of Fish Life|passage=The ''Tectospondyli'' contains those dog-fishes which have no anal fin, and the rays and '''devil-fishes'''.|year=1901|author=w:William Plane Pycraft|page=173|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/storyoffishlife00pycr/page/173/mode/1up|publisher=w:George Newnes|location=London}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=There the great ray, the '''devilfish''', powerful, swift, mighty, tons in weight, spreads his huge black wings; {{...}}|title=The Song of the Spear|work=w:Forest and Stream|year=1905|author=A. S. J. Newberry|page=295|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/Foreststreamv64/page/295/mode/1up|volume=44|issue=15|publisher=Forest and Stream Publishing Company|location=New York, N.Y.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=The Arcturus Adventure|passage=Indeed the same time-worn phrase if considered horizontally would be less than the actual fact if applied to some of the '''devilfish''' or giant rays which we saw.|year=1926|author=w:William Beebe|page=206|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/arcturusadventur00beeb/page/206/mode/1up|publisher=w:G. P. Putnam's Sons|location=New York, N.Y.; London}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|passage=Viennese marine biologist Han Haas lived for six months on an Arab fishing boat on the Red Sea in 120 degree heat. He bumped noses with sharks and deadly '''devil fish''' while he photographed the briny deep.|title=Woman Diverts Attention From Filming Undersea|work=w:The Atlanta Constitution|year=1951|page=12|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/per_atlanta-constitution_1951-12-08_84_148/page/12/mode/1up|issue=148|volume=84|footer=<small>Uncertain; however, ''{{w|Under the Red Sea}}'' (1951) was noted for its depictions of sharks and rays.</small>}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Light on a Dark Horse: An Autobiography|passage=Thinking a whale had just ''sounded'' after hitting the water with its tail, I was about to turn away from it, when, like a great white owl, thirty feet across, and half as much from nose to tail, a gigantic eagle-ray or '''devil-fish''', leaped silently out of the water, with its wings spread wide, planed for a short distance, and struck the water flat, with a similar detonation.|year=1951|author={{w|Roy Campbell (poet)|Roy Campbell}}|page=149|year_published=1952|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/lightondarkhorse0000camp/page/149/mode/1up|publisher=w:Henry Regnery Company|location=Chicago, I.L.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Vertebrate Life|passage=The largest rays, like the largest sharks, are plankton strainers. '''Devilfishes''' or manta rays of the family Mobulidae are up to 6 meters in width.|year=2002|author=F. Harvey Pough; {{w|Christine Janis|Christine M. Janis}}; John B. Heiser|page=127|isbn=0-13-041248-1|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/vertebratelife00poug_0/page/127/mode/1up|publisher=w:Prentice Hall|location=Upper Saddle River, N.J.|edition=6th}}
##* {{quote-journal|en|author=Susan Enfield Esrey|title=Far From the Bubblin' Crowd|newspaper=w:The New York Times|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403153531/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/travel/far-from-the-bubblin-crowd.html|location=New York, N.Y.|publisher=w:The New York Times Company|date=2004-10-31|issn=0362-4331|oclc=971436363|passage=These "'''devil fish'''" may have seemed terrifying then, but these days, the opportunity to swim with manta rays lures divers to Tobago, Trinidad's smaller, less-developed neighbor.}}
### {{lb|en|specifically}} The [[devil ray]], {{taxlink|Mobula mobular|species}}.
## Certain fish in the genus {{taxlink|Paraplesiops|genus}}; see [[blue devilfish]], [[Bleeker's devilfish]].
##* {{quote-book|en|title=The Manual of Underwater Photography|passage='''Devilfish''' are rather shy and difficult to approach. However, patience and perseverence{{sic}} usually pay off.|year=1989|author=Heinz-Gert de Couet; Andrew Green|page=214|isbn=3-925919-02-3|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/manualofunderwat00hein/page/214/mode/1up|publisher=Verlag Christa Hemmen|location=Viesbaden, Germany}}
##* {{quote-book|en|title=Encyclopedia of Fishes|passage=Another closely related marine family, the Indo-Pacific Plesiopidae (roundheads), are well represented in Australian waters, with such familiar and brightly colored species as the hulafishes (''Trachinops''), '''devilfishes''' (''Paraplesiops''), and longfins (''Plesiops'').|year=1994|author={{w|John Paxton (ichthyologist)|John R. Paxton}}; w:William N. Eschmeyer|page=185|year_published=1995|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780125476607/page/185/mode/1up|publisher=w:Academic Press|location=San Diego, C.A.|isbn=9780125476607}}

===References===
* {{R:OED Online|entry=devil fish|id=51476|pos=n}}
* {{R:Merriam-Webster Online}}

===Further reading===
* {{pedia|Devilfish}}
* {{pedia|Devil fish}}

{{c|en|Anglerfish|Catfish|Characins|Fish<!--Paraplesiops-->|Octopuses|Rays and skates|Squid|Whales}}