Hydroides elegans is a small tube-forming serpulid polychaete worm commonly found in hard-bottom coastal and estuarine fouling communities. The species is present in the IRL and elsewhere in Florida but is an introduced species not native to the United States.Adult H. elegans have 65-80 body segments and an opercular crown with 14-17 spines, each with 2-4 lateral processes and a medial row of short serrations. The opercular crown also has a small central spine. The calcareous tubes produced by H. elegans are white and sinuous, sub-trapezoidal in cross-section and possessing 2 longitudinal ridges and many transverse wrinkles (Imajima 1976, NIMPIS 2002).