Spot the Frippet: something lucifugous.

I like words beginning with luci. I think it's probably because I used to want to be Lucy from The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Yes, that is slightly mad - but it's harmless, so why not?

Anyway. Where can we spot something lucifugous?

Lucifugous means avoiding light, so vampires are an excellent example of something lucifugous, if not that likely to be encountered on one's daily commute (especially mine: I only walk upstairs).

Luckily there are more ordinary lucifugous creatures: some owls;

some of the creatures that owls prey on (voles, mice); then there are moles; the wonderful aye aye;


photo: Tom Junek

and anything that has enormous eyes like some deep-sea fishes; 


that's a big-eye tuna

or almost none at all, like some cave creatures;


those are olms, which are cave newts, more or less.

The trouble is that all these creatures are so keen to avoid the light that it's hard to spot them because they're always lurking in the shadows.

Still, how about peanuts? They bury themselves far away from light. And in that case, all you probably have to do is open a packet.

Spot the frippet: something lucifugous. This word comes from the Latin lucifigus, from lux, light, and fugere, to flee.