In 2013, Carballo, Aquilar-Camacho, Knapp & Bell, decided that this was a homonym, a separate taxon from the original one given that name, and gave the new species the name Gelliodes wilsoni.

The texture is spongy but fibrous, elastic and tough and the surface may be smooth or may have irregular tufts of fibres protruding.

It has spread to Hawaii as an invasive species, where it is now present on Oahu, Kauai, and Maui; original introduction may have been on the hull of a floating dry dock.

[2] In the Hawaiian Islands it is mainly present as part of the fouling community on piers, harbour structures and floating docks.

In Kaneohe Bay and other locations, it is present on patch reefs, and may encrust the shaded lower surfaces of plate corals.