Cirrhitidae

Cirrhitidae, the hawkfishes, are a family of marine ray-finned fishes found in tropical seas and which are associated with coral reefs.

==Taxonomy== left|thumb|Paracirrhites forsteri|Black-sided hawkfish (Paracirrhites forsteri) from [[East Timor]] The Cirrhitidae were first recognised as a family by the Scots-born Australian naturalist William Sharp Macleay in 1841. It is one of the five constituent families in the superfamily Cirrhitoidea which is classified in the suborder Percoidei of the order Perciformes. Within the Cirrhitoidea, the Cirrhitidae is probably the most basal family. They have been placed in the order Centrarchiformes by some authorities, as part of the superfamily Cirrhitoidea, however, the fifth edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise the Centrarchiformes. The name of the family is taken from that of the genus Cirrhitus which is derived from cirrhus meaning a "lock of hair" or "a barbel", thought to be a reference to lower, unbranched rays of the pectoral fins which Bernard Germain de Lacépède termed as "barbillons", which means "barbels" in his description of the type species of the genus C. maculatus, and which he thought to be "false" pectoral fins. Another possibility is that the name refers to cirri extending from the tips of the spines in the dorsal fin spines, although Lacépède did not mention this feature.