Hemitripterus americanus

Sea raven
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Scorpaeniformes
Family:	Agonidae
Genus:	Hemitripterus
Species:	H. americanus
Binomial name
Hemitripterus americanus (Gmelin, 1789)
Synonyms[1]
Scorpaena americana Gmelin, 1789 Cottus acadian Walbaum, 1792 Cottus hispidus Bloch & Schneider, 1801 Cottus tripterygius Bloch & Schneider, 1801 Scorpaena americana Lacépède, 1801 Scorpaena flava Mitchill, 1815 Scorpaena purpurea Mitchill, 1818 Scorpaena rufa Mitchill, 1818 Hemitripterus americanus Cuvier, 1829 Hemitripterus acadianus Storer, 1853

Hemitripterus americanus, the sea raven, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Hemitripterinae of the family Agonidae. The sea raven is found along the Atlantic coast of North America.

Hemitripterus americanus was first formally described as Scorpaena americana in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin with its type locality given as "America".^[2] In 1801 Marcus Elieser Bloch and Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider described a new species Cottus tripterygius and in 1829 Georges Cuvier proposed the new monotypic genus Hemitripterus for C. tripterygius which was later shown to be a junior synonym of Gmelin's S. americana.^[3][2] The genus Hemitripterus is classified within the subfamily Hemtripterinae of the family Agonidae.^[4]

Hemitripterus americanus are variable in color from blood red to reddish purple to yellow brown. The ventral surface is typically yellow. They have large heads and a robust, tapering body. There are obvious fleshy folds on the head and lower jaw. There is also an unusual ragged layer of skin on the first dorsal fin. They have large, fan-shaped pectoral fins and a small caudal fin. They have a broad moutrh which is lined with several rows of teeth.^[5] The maximum published total length is 62 cm (24 in) and the maximum published weight is 3.2 kg (7.1 lb).^[1]

Hemitripterus americanus is found along the Atlantic Coast of North America, from Labrador in Canada to Chesapeake Bay.^[1] They are demersal fish found over rocky or hard substrates but can be found anywhere in the water column.^[5]

Hemitripterus americanus is considered to be a voracious predator which preys on a wide variety of animals including benthic invertebrates and fish such as herring, sand eels and silver hake. When they are removed from the water they inflate and if returned to it they cannot submerge. Spawning adults attach their eggs to the bases of sponges.^[1]