Family CLADORHIZIDAE Dendy, 1922 Type species. Cladorhiza abyssicola Sars, 1872: 65. Diagnosis. Carnivorous sponges that have adapted to feeding on small, typically crustacean, prey. Adaptations to carnivory include partial or complete reduction of the aquiferous system, erect habit with radiating processes with either a basal disc or root (rhizoid) processes for anchoring in soft sediment. Axial or abaxial skeleton composed of monactinal or diactinal megascleres, from which extend extra-axial branches. Microscleres include palmate, arcuate and anchorate (an)isochelae and their derivatives, including placochelae and cercichelae; sigmas, forceps or micro(subtylo)styles (microspined, and also spear-shaped in a few cases), and trochirhabds (from Hestetun et al. 2016).

Published as part of Vacelet, Jean, 2020, Carnivorous sponges (Porifera, Cladorhizidae) from the deep South Pacific (New Caledonia) with the description of three new species of the genus Abyssocladia and remarks on genus Cercicladia, pp. 257-276 in Zootaxa 4767 (2) on page 258, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4767.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/3770819