The first specimen of the quagga catshark was a 27 cm (11 in) long adult male collected by the paddle steamer RIMS Investigator from a depth of 187 m (614 ft) off the Malabar Coast of India.
It was described by British naturalist Alfred William Alcock in A Descriptive Catalogue of the Indian Deep-sea Fishes in the Indian Museum, published in 1899.
He assigned the new species to the genus Scyllium (a synonym of Scyliorhinus) and named it after the quagga (Equus quagga quagga) because of their similar color patterns.
Later authors moved this species to the genus Halaelurus.

Only nine quagga catshark specimens have been recorded.
In addition to Alcock's type specimen, four males were trawled from off the eastern Somali coast by the research ship RV Anton Bruun in 1964.
Four more individuals, two male and two female, were found amongst the contents of commercial fishing trawls conducted off Quilon, India in 2010.
A male specimen reported from the Gulf of Aden in 1939 was later re-identified as a speckled catshark (H. boesemani).
The first specimen of the quagga catshark was a 27 cm (11 in) long adult male collected by the paddle steamer RIMS Investigator from a depth of 187 m (614 ft) off the Malabar Coast of India. It was described by British naturalist Alfred William Alcock in A Descriptive Catalogue of the Indian Deep-sea Fishes in the Indian Museum, published in 1899. He assigned the new species to the genus Scyllium (a synonym of Scyliorhinus) and named it after the quagga (Equus quagga quagga) because of their similar color patterns. Later authors moved this species to the genus Halaelurus.
Only nine quagga catshark specimens have been recorded. In addition to Alcock's type specimen, four males were trawled from off the eastern Somali coast by the research ship RV Anton Bruun in 1964. Four more individuals, two male and two female, were found amongst the contents of commercial fishing trawls conducted off Quilon, India in 2010. A male specimen reported from the Gulf of Aden in 1939 was later re-identified as a speckled catshark (H. boesemani).
Quagga catshark