Genus Abyssocladia Lévi, 1964

Abyssocladia Lévi, 1964: 78

Diagnosis. Cladorhizidae most often pedunculate, carrying a disciform or flabelliform body with a radial architecture, in other cases pinnate or branching. Microscleres are a combination of abyssochelae, cleistochelae, arcuate chelae and/or sigmancistras, but not placochelae (from Hestetun et al. 2016a).

Type species. Abyssocladia bruuni Lévi, 1964 (by monotypy).

Remarks. Currently there are 38 accepted species assigned to Abyssocladia (de Voogd et al. 2022), with only five previously recorded from the Australian EEZ i.e. A. annae Ekins, Erpenbeck & Hooper, 2020a, A. desmophora (Hooper & Lévi, 1989), A. escheri Ekins, Erpenbeck & Hooper, 2020a, A. gliscofila Ekins, Erpenbeck & Hooper, 2020a and A. oxyasters Ekins, Erpenbeck, Goudie & Hooper, 2020b . Three new species of Abyssocladia were also recently reported from New Caledonia (Vacelet 2020). They are A. kanaconi Vacelet, 2020, A. microstrongylata Vacelet, 2020 and A. mucronata Vacelet, 2020 (the latter now accepted as Echinostylinos gorgonopsis Lévi, 1993 (Vacelet & Kelly 2022).