REVIEW OF THE HAWKFISHES — RANDALL 445 



The deeply forked caudal fin, somewhat elongate body, and small 

 oblique mouth of Cyprinocirrhites suggest plankton-feeding habits and 

 a more open-water mode of life than that of other cirrhitids. To 

 confirm this suspicion, the stomachs of 4 Philippine specimens, 50 to 

 70 mm. in standard length (one of which, a 66 mm. specimen, is a 

 ripe female), were opened. The contents proved to be zooplankton: 

 copepods, larval shrimp, larval crabs, fish eggs, and soft material that 

 appears to be pelagic tunicate. Several families of tropical marine 

 fishes have representatives that depart from a bottom-dwelling exist- 

 ence typical of the group to live in a semipelagic habitat. All have 

 more lunate caudal fins, more fusiform body shape, and smaller 

 mouths, generally, than their benthic relatives. Examples are Pa- 

 ranthias of the Serranidae, Caesio and Ocyurus of the Lutjanidae, 

 Clepticus of the Labridae, and certain species of Chromis of the 

 Pomacentridae. These fishes do not strain the organisms from the 

 sea, but pick the individual plankters one by one. When danger 

 approaches, they retire to the reef for shelter. Cyprinocirrhites may 

 behave in the same way. 



Genus Oxycirrhites Bleeker 



Oxycirrhites Bleeker, 1857, Act. Soc. Sci. Indo-Ne^rlandicae, vol. 2, p. 39. (Type 

 species, Oxycirrhites typus Bleeker, by monotypy.) 



Fowler (1934, p. 358) created a new subfamily, Oxj^cirrhitinae, for 

 the genus Oxycirrhites. De Beaufort (1940, pp. 13-15), on the other 

 hand, included the species Amblycirrhitus himacula in the genus. 

 Oxycirrhites is here regarded as a monotypic genus of the subfamily 

 Cirrhitinae. Generic characters are given in the discussion of typus. 



Oxycirrhites typus Bleeker 



Figure 35 



Oxycirrhiles typus Bleeker, 1857, Act. Soc. Sci. Indo-Neerlandicae, vol. 2, p. 40 



(type locality, Amboina, East Indies) ; 1876-77, Atlas ichthyologique . . . , 



vol. 8, pp. 141, 148, pi. 351, fig. 2. 

 Oxycirrhites typus de Beaufort, 1940, The fishes of the Indo-Australian Archipelago, 



vol. 8, pp. 14, 15, fig. 4. 

 Oxycirrhites morrisi Fowler, 1934, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 85, p. 359 



fig. 109 (type locality, eastern Palawan, Philippine Islands). 

 Oxycirrhites seftoni Bohlke and Briggs, 1935, California Fish and Game, vol. 39, 



p. 375, figs. 1, 2 (type locality, off Pulmilla Point, San Jose del Cabo Bay, 



Baja California). 



Diagnosis. — Dorsal rays X,13; anal rays 111,7; pectoral rays ii,7,v 

 or ii,6,vi; lateral-line scales 51 to 53; 4 rows of large scales above lateral 

 line in middle of body; 10 scales below lateral line to origin of anal fin; 

 gill rakers 5 + 1 + 11 or 12 (4 specimens, Philippines, Sumatra and Baja 

 California). 



