About Sabellastarte spectabilis (Grube, 1878)
This large worm, Sabellastarte spectabilis, can reach 80 millimeters (3.1 in) in length and 10–12 millimeters (0.39–0.47 in) in width. It is buff-colored with purple specks. It lives inside a tough, leathery tube covered in fine mud. Protruding from the tube is a branchial crown made up of branched tentacles called radioles, which form a plume. The tentacles are striped with alternating dark brown and pale brown bands, and have neither stylodes nor eye spots. This species has two long, slender palps and a four-lobed collar. The native range of Sabellastarte spectabilis is the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and it is now also found off the coasts of Africa, Mozambique, and in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2002, it was reported growing on pilings, floating docks, and harbour walls in Hawaii. Sabellastarte spectabilis inhabits holes, cracks, and areas among algae on reefs and rocky shores. It sometimes grows in crevices in the coral Pocillopora meandrina, under boulders in still water, in holes in lava, in tidal pools, and in channels exposed to heavy surf.
