larva

UK/ˈlɑː.və/US/ˈlɑɹ.və/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,330 of 15,258leans written

A larva is the young feeding stage of an insect, before it changes shape. A butterfly larva, larvae in the water, the larva hatched.

It looks nothing like the adult and usually eats something completely different, which is the point: the young and the adult do not compete for food. The plural is larvae. A caterpillar, a maggot and a grub are all one.

Definitions of larva

1nounlarvaThe young feeding stage of an insect, before it changes shape.B2+
“The mosquito larva wriggled in the still water of the bucket.”

larva is a life stage.

Where it comes from

Latin larva meant a ghost or a mask. Linnaeus used it for the form that masks the adult inside.

Latin
larva — disembodied spirit, ghost, goblin
English, today
larva

From Latin larva (“disembodied spirit, ghost, goblin”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

Practise this word

larva in the wild

The mosquito lifecycle consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Mosquito
A larva (; pl.: larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage.
Larva
Unlike a typical larva, a nymph's overall form already resembles that of the adult, except for a lack of wings (in winged species) and the emergence of genitalia.
Nymph (biology)
Visceral larva migrans (VLM) is a more severe form of the disease; signs and symptoms depend on the specific organ system(s) involved.
Toxocariasis
Visceral larva migrans (VLM) is a condition in humans caused by the migratory larvae of certain nematodes, humans being a dead-end host, and was first reported in 1952.
Visceral larva migrans

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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