Abyssocladia Lévi, 1964

Ekins, Merrick & Hooper, John N. A., 2023, New carnivorous sponges from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia collected by ROV from the RV FALKOR, Zootaxa 5293 (3), pp. 435-471 : 440

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5293.3.2
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FE67E8C2-AFE5-491C-B673-2ECE82FA4D87
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7982618
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038A1C6B-FFB2-524E-8E87-FC139B988F39
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Abyssocladia Lévi, 1964
status

Treatment

Genus Abyssocladia Lévi, 1964 View in CoL View at ENA

Abyssocladia Lévi, 1964: 78 View in CoL

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 View in CoL (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).