About Hippolyte varians Leach, 1814
This is a prawn or shrimp that reaches a maximum length of 3 cm (1.2 in). It occurs in a wide range of different colours: red, yellow, brown, green, transparent, or blue. Its colour can change to adapt to its surroundings, and it typically turns bluish-green during the night. Both its common name "chameleon shrimp" and its specific epithet varians, which means "varying, fluctuating", refer to this colour-changing ability. It sometimes matches the colour of the seaweed it feeds on, including the green algae Ulva lactuca and the red algae Palmaria palmata. Its short carapace bears a single spine. It also has one spine above each eye, and its telson has two pairs of lateral spines. Hippolyte varians inhabits waters down to 150 m (490 ft) deep across the eastern Atlantic.
