The surface of the carapace is marked into several differently coloured, geometric regions by a network of dark lines giving it the appearance of stained glass.
The legs are banded with dark transverse lines, speckled with white spots and clad in sparse, short hairs.
[3] Lybia tessellata is found in shallow water in the tropical Indo-Pacific region, its range extending from the Red Sea and the East African coast to Indonesia and New Guinea.
[1][3] It is found on sandy and gravelly seabeds, where it is well camouflaged, and on live corals where it clings with its long, thin legs.
It is unable to feed itself with its chelae and uses the tentacles of the anemones to collect food particles which it then removes with its mobile maxillipeds.