Author: Fowler, 1934
Diagnostic Features:
Body not tadpole-shaped, moderately slender and cylindrical, tapering slightly to caudal fin; body firm and thick-skinned, with well-calcified dermal denticles; stomach not inflatable; tail moderately short, length from vent to lower caudal origin about 3/5 of snout-vent length. Head slightly depressed, narrowly rounded and not wedge-shaped in lateral view; head short, less than 1/5 of total length in adults; snout short, less than 3/4 of mouth width, thick, and slightly flattened, bluntly pointed in lateral view; snout not expanded laterally, rounded-parabolic and slightly bell-shaped in dorsoventral view; ampullal pores not greatly enlarged on snout; nostrils enlarged, but with incurrent and excurrent apertures only slightly open to exterior; anterior nasal flaps formed as broad triangular lobes with truncated posterior borders, without barbels, well separated from each other and ending slightly anterior to mouth; internarial space about 1.4 times the nostril width; nasoral grooves absent; eyes dorsolateral on head, narrow subocular ridges present below eyes; mouth angular or semiangular, moderately long, with lower symphysis somewhat behind upper so that upper teeth are well-exposed in ventral view; labial furrows present along both upper and lower jaws, these very long and extending in front of level of upper symphysis of mouth; branchial region not greatly enlarged, distance from spiracles to fifth gill slits about half of head length; gill slits lateral on head. Two dorsal fins present, about equal-sized or with the second slightly larger than the first; origin of first dorsal about over pelvic insertions; origin of second dorsal over the first quarter of the anal base; pectoral fins moderately large, their width slightly greater than mouth width; inner margins of pelvic fins not fused over claspers in adult males; claspers moderately long, fairly thick, and distally pointed or rounded, extending about half of their lengths behind the pelvic fin tips; anal fin small and not greatly elongated, smaller than pelvic and dorsal fins, its base length about equal to second dorsal base; origin of anal far behind pelvic bases, and its insertion separated from lower caudal origin by a space about half as long as the anal base; caudal fin short and broad, less than a fifth of total length in adults. No crests of denticles on the caudal margins. Supraorbital crests present on cranium. Colour dark grey with a variegated colour pattern of dark and white spots, and dark saddles on the sides and dorsal surface.
Remarks:
Springer (1979) raised the rank of Aulohalaelurus to genus for the Australian A. labiosus. While definitely not congeneric with Halaelurus, Aulohalaelurus is very close to the genera Atelomysterus and Schroederichthys and needs to be critically compared with these taxa to determine its validity.