The results of a species-level taxonomic revision of the genus Camptochaete Reichdt (Musci: Lembophyllaceae) are presented. All accepted species are illustrated and lectotypified where necessary.

  Prior to this study, a total of 27 species in three sections had been included in Camptochaete. Seven of these are rejected from Camptochaete and a further 11 treated as synonyms therein. The genus is here recognised as containing 10 species in two sections: Sect. 1. Camptochaete: C. arbuscula, C. arbuscula var. tumida var. nov., C. defiexa (C. ramulosa, syn. nov.), C. angustata, C. pulvinata, C. leichhardtii, and Sect. 2. Thamniella; C. excavata, (C. vaga, syn. nov.), C. curvata sp. nov., C. papuana sp. nov., C. porotrichoides, C. subporotrichoides. Important characters for this infrageneric classification are stipe leaf orientation and operculum form. The genus exhibits two areas of diversity, one centred on the Tasman Sea and the other centred on the Coral Sea, corresponding to sections Camptochaete and Thamniella respectively.

  Camptochaete is mostly Australasian in distribution. It is pleurocarpous and dioicous and characterised by a predominantly sympodial, dendroid-stipitate weft-forming growth form, rigid and wiry stems, rhombic upper laminal cells, short and double costae, differentiated basal and alar cells and hypnoid peristomes. Camptochaete exhibits considerable morphological variation. An understanding of the variation in growth form and leaf characters over a range of specimens is necessary for accurate identification of species.