Spot the Frippet: something lacertilian.

Do you have lacertilian eyes? 

It sounds quite romantic - perhaps they would long-lashed, dark, and languorous - but sadly that's not the case because lacertilian means to do with lizards.

Now there is the occasional lizard, like this crested gecko, that looks rather as if it has eyelashes:


photo by Michael McConville

(cute, isn't it?) but on the whole lacertilian eyes are not something to which a mammal would aspire. 

Those slitted pupils would, one imagines, be off-putting.

So what else might be lacertilian?

Well, lizards, obviously - but they're all hibernating in Britain at the moment, except for the ones kept as pets, and in zoos.

If you're in Central America then you may get a chance to feast on chicken of the tree, which is the meat of the Green iguana:


photo by Cayambe

 In Africa spiny-tailed lizards are eaten (though presumably not the actual spiny tails):


photo by Arpingstone

 and Uromastyx species:


Uromastyx nigriventris. Photo by Cedricguppy - Loury Cédric

are the fish of the desert and eaten by nomadic tribes.

Then there's the charming Gila monster, whose poison is used to make the anti-diabetic drug exenatide.

Ans we mustn't forget the Cardiff-based band called Lacertilia which promises 'a cosmic blend of primal rock'n'roll energy, heavy psychedelia and sludgy groove rock'.

But on the whole, I have to say, lizards aren't a lot of good to humans. The big ones might eat rats sometimes, and they small ones are fairly effective insect-eaters, but mostly they go their own sweet way. I rather admire that.

So for today, I think I'll be on the look-out for someone with chilling, unfeeling, predatory eyes.

And then run away from them.

Spot the Frippet: something lacertilian. Lacerta is the Latin for lizard.