Horned feather worm
Spirobranchus giganteus
(Pallas, 1766)

Description:
This most well known of the feather worms has two spiraled crowns of radioles. The hard, calcareous tube is hidden in the coral. When disturbed, the animal retracts immediately into its tube, closing it with a two-horned, circular lid, called the operculum. The color of the crowns is highly variable, although brown, dark brown, orange, white, and maroon or combinations of these are most common.
Size: whole animal up to 10 cm crowns up to 4 cm.

Habitat:
This feather worm occurs all over the reefs. Tubes usually encased in living coral.
Depth: ranges from 3 m down to 30 m.

Distribution:
Common all over the Caribbean.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Annelida
Class Polychaeta
Genus Spirobranchus
Species Spirobranchus giganteus

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Spirobranchus giganteus (Pallas, 1766)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Horned feather worm [English]
Christmas tree worm [English]

Humann, P., 1992. Reef Creature Identification - Florida Caribbean Bahamas, (ed. N. Deloach). New World Publications, Inc., Paramount Miller Graphics, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida.

Voss, G.L., 1976. Seashore life of Florida and the Carribbean. Banyan Books, Inc. Miami, Florida.

You can continue searching for Spirobranchus giganteus on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

Google | Yahoo | MSN | Wikipedia