Describing an organism or plant movement that turns away from sunlight, the opposite of heliotropic.
From Greek apo- (away) + helios (sun) + tropos (turn) + -ic (adjective suffix). This term was coined in biology to describe organisms that exhibit negative phototaxis.
Many cave-dwelling creatures and deep-sea organisms are apheliotropic because in their habitats, moving toward light would be dangerous—it's a survival mechanism that demonstrates how evolution adapts creatures to their specific environments.
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