Abstract
IT has long been known that the very numerous varieties of the prawn Hippolyte (Virbius) varians reflect, each after its kind, the colour of the weed or zoophyte to which they cling, and on which they find both food and shelter. A few naturalists, after noting this striking case of “protective resemblance,” have detached some of the more brilliantly coloured specimens for the purpose of making a detailed subsequent examination. When they came to do this they found that the vivid brown and other tints had in the interval largely faded, or were replaced by others. This discovery has no doubt been made independently time after time, and has given point and emphasis to the essentially variable character of this prawn. Not only do individuals differ from each other, but any one of them is capable of altering its characteristic tint.
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Changes of Colour of Prawns . Nature 61, 552–553 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/061552a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061552a0