Philippe
And thanks for explaining the two possible meanings of "effrey", Kwaw. I can't see how either of them fit the context (I mean, why would red indicate fearfulness, and why would a crab be fiery? but then I haven't studied Wirth in detail. .
In fact the english translation is not correct (without counting the mispelling of fiery)
"caractère igné" means exactly "characteristically related to the fire (as) element" and certainly not fiery character. For instance the igneous rock issued from volcano. Of course a crayfish is not a fiery lion...
In french the word effraie exists, it refers to an owl (tyto alba) and consequently the white colour ( this owl is also called Dame Blanche). So it's certainly not what Wirth had in mind when explaining the red colour of his crayfish
French crayfishs were white, that's why Wirth explains (p138) that its red colour is not because of the cooking but to emphasize the active purifying nature (related to the fire element) he assigns to this animal in his tarot. It's a rather uninspired idea : far away from cleaning the natural environment in which they live, crayfishs are victims of the slightest pollution and on the way to disappear.