Spirobranchus decoratus Imajima, 1982

Spirobranchus tricornigerus decoratus Imajima, 1982: 48 –50, fig. 5a–m [Palau and Yap Islands; original description]. Spirobranchus tricornigerus var. racemosus Pillai, 1971: 99 –100, fig. 3e [Sri Lanka; description].

Spirobranchus decoratus . —Imajima & ten Hove 1984: 52–53, fig. 5d [Truk Islands, Ponape and Majuro Atoll; discussion, synonymy]; Imajima & ten Hove 1986: 8 [Nauru, the Gilbert Islands, the Solomon Islands]; Imajima 1987: 79 [Okinawa, Japan]; Fiege & Sun 1999: 125–126, fig. 14a–d [Hainan Island, China; description]; Sun & Yang 2001a: 195–196, fig.7A– F [Hainan Island, South China Sea]; Bailey-Brock et al. 2012: 979–980, fig. 8A–H [Marshall Islands].

Material examined. ZMA V.Pol. 4537, Granite Head, 14°39'S, 145°27'E, from underside of boulders on rock, little sand, subtidally, coll. H. ten Hove, 18 Jun 1983.

Diagnosis. Tubes wine-red to pink and white, triangular in cross-section with median keel of coarse spines flanked at both sides by a row of pits. Opercular plate flat, bearing a crown of 5–6 (or even more) dichotomously branching spines. Spines bear small paired denticles along their length. Spines all in same plane giving a finely pinnate, stellate appearance to the operculum. Peduncle with wide distal wings ending in a single (exceptionally two) process(es).

Remarks. See the discussion in Imajima & ten Hove (1984: 53).

Distribution. Indo-West Pacific, recorded from South Japan, South China Sea, the Islands Palau, Truk and Ponape, Majuro Atoll, Solomon Islands; Lizard Island, Australia and Sri Lanka.