Appearance in life: shaggy, orange-brown above, light red band of tube feet about half the width of sole running longitudinally, laterial podia and oral tentacles orange-yellow, stems of podia deep red (Humphreys, 1981). Also distributed in Maldive area, East Indies, north Australia, China, south Japan and South Pacific Is. (Clark & Rowe, 1971); Australia (Rowe & Gates, 1995).  General distribution: tropical, Indo-west Pacific, depth range 3-20 m. (Rowe & Gates, 1995); widespread in the tropical Indo-Pacific, excluding Hawaii (Conand, 1998). Ecology: benthic, inshore, detritus feeder, deposit feeder (Rowe & Gates, 1995). Habitat: hard bottoms, large rubble and coral patches, on reef slopes and near passes, depth range from surface down to 25 m. (Conand, 1998).