Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Larva |
LarvaNoun1. The immature free-living form of most invertebrates and amphibians and fish which at hatching from the egg is fundamentally unlike its parent and must metamorphose. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "larva" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
Etymology: Larva \Lar"va\, noun; plural Latin Larv[ae], English Larvas. [Latin expression larva ghost, specter, mask.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Biology & Biotechnology | The immature, wingless and wormlike form in which mosquitoes hatch from eggs, and in which they remain with increase in size and other minor changes until they assume the pupa stage ; specifically, the larval form of certain higher(e. g. scarab)beetles; often applied indiscriminately to all larval forms of beetles in general, plus larvae of other insects that are grub-like. Source: European Union. (references) |
Food & Agriculture | A)the immature form of insects that undergo metamorphosis; b)in insect larva in orders that undergo complete metamorphosis, an immature insect hatching from the egg an up to the pupal stage. Source: European Union. (references) |
Health | Wormlike or grublike stage, following the egg in the life cycle of insects, worms, and other metamorphosing animals. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A larva (Latin; plural larvae) is a juvenile from of animal with indirect development, undergoing metamorphosis (for example, insects or frogs) . The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly. Larvae also often have special (larval) organs which do not occur in the adult form. The larvae of some species can become pubescent without actually developing into the adult form (for example, in some newts). This is called neoteny.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Larva."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
larva | English | Low altitude research vehicle | Military & Defense |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Infant | Child, bairn, little one, brat, chit, pickaninny, urchin; bantling, bratling; elf. youth, boy, lad, stripling, youngster, youngun, younker, callant, whipster, whippersnapper, whiffet, schoolboy, hobbledehoy, hopeful, cadet, minor, master. scion; sap, seedling; tendril, olive branch, nestling, chicken, larva, chrysalis, tadpole, whelp, cub, pullet, fry, callow; codlin,codling; foetus, calf, colt, pup, foal, kitten; lamb, lambkin; aurelia, caterpillar, cocoon, nymph, nympha, orphan, pupa, staddle. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Larva |
| English words defined with "larva": Loeven's larva ♦ Rat-tailed larva. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "larva": Broekman ♦ casemoth, creeping eruption, creeping featurism, cutaneous larva migrans ♦ egg-larva ♦ first-instar larva ♦ greater wax moth ♦ insect hole ♦ Larva Migrans ♦ needle hole ♦ Tenebrio, Toxascaris, Toxocara canis, Toxocariasis, Trombiculid Mites ♦ Visceral Larva Migrans. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "larva": larval, Larvate, Larvated. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Larva" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Czech (grub, larva, maggot), Italian (grub, larva, maggot), Latin (ghost, phantom), Papiamen (grub, larva), Portuguese (grub, larva, maggot, worm, wriggler), Serbo-Croatian (case worm, grub, larva, maggot), Spanish (grub, larva, maggot), Swedish (behave flippantly, tramp), Turkish (larva, larval). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I read about a man who won all new wall-to-wall carpetin' that contained the teeniest unidentified larva that eventually caused him to paste a 26-foot tapeworm from his body. (Filthy Rich; writing credit: Barry E. Blitzer; Linda Bloodworth-Thomason) Ungrateful little yuppie larva. (Ghostbusters II; writing credit: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
There are four growth stages, or instars, in the development of the Culex mosquito larva. "Instar" is a term used to designate a stage in the metamorphosis experienced by insect nymphs or larvae.Credit: CDC. | The important identifying characteristics of a Wyeomyia mosquito larva are that it lacks the median ventral brush and it has comb scales.Credit: CDC. | ||
First instar larva of Cuterebra, a genus of botfly. Fly, parasite.Credit: CDC. | Tip of tail, hookworm filariform larva. Roundworm, nematode, parasite.Credit: CDC. | ||
Strongyloides filariform larva. Roundworm, nematode, parasite.Credit: CDC. | Rhabditiform larva of hookworm. Parasite.Credit: CDC. | ||
![]() | A female Catolaccus grandis wasp homes in on a boll weevil larva. This 3/8 inch parasitic wasp, a native of Mexico, inserts her ovipositor through the plastic film covering the individual rearing cell and immobilizes the larva. P.Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. | ![]() | Biological technician Eleazar Moreno artificially infects a mango with a fruit fly larva in one of the controlled atmosphere (CA) tests.Credit: USDA ARS News. |
![]() | A green lacewing larva dines on whitefly nymphs. P.Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Jack Dykinga.. | Bark Beetle larva and a dime.Credit: Tim Haller. | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | The abdomen under the wings of the butterfly stir represents the larva. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Kazacos KR. Visceral and ocular larva migrans. (references) | |
This is referred to as a creeping eruption or cutaneous larva migrans. (references) | ||
Urban growth has eliminated natural standing water areas necessary for the larva to develop, such as marshes. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Larva" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.40% of the time. "Larva" is used about 125 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.4% | 123 | 28,925 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.6% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 125 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "larva": cutaneous larva migrans ♦ Larva Migrans ♦ Loeven's larva ♦ Visceral Larva Migrans. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "larva": egg-larva. | |
Containing "larva": egg-larva-pupa-adult. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
larva | 112 |
mosquito larva | 106 |
butterfly larva | 31 |
dragonfly larva | 29 |
fly larva | 22 |
bug lady larva | 20 |
larva migrans | 19 |
larva moth | 18 |
insect larva | 17 |
termite larva | 17 |
larva mothra | 15 |
flea larva | 14 |
beetle larva | 12 |
larva mosquito picture | 12 |
mosquito control larva | 11 |
larva picture | 10 |
kill mosquito larva | 9 |
larva sawfly | 8 |
caddisfly larva | 8 |
midge larva | 7 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "larva"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | larvë (caterpillar, maggot), vemje (caterpillar, grub, maggot). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | يرقة (maggot), يرقانة (slug). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | ларва (grub). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 蚴 (fluorine), 蝤 (grub), (maggot), 幼蟲 , 幼虫 (GRUB, grubs, Larvae, larval, Larvas). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | larva (grub, maggot). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | larve. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | larve (grub, larvae). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | larvo (grub). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | ormvera (caterpillar, grub), ormur (grub, serpent, snake, worm). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | حشره کش (Insecticide), دافع کرم حشره . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | toukka (caterpillar, grub, immature fly, larvae, maggot). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | larve (larvae). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Larve (grub, larvae, mask). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κάμπια (caterpillar, grub, wire worm), προνύμφη (callow adult, grub, larva of bees, larvae, teneral adult). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | זחל (caterpillar, caterpillar track, grub, maggot, track), 'ולם (awkward person, boor, clod, dummy, embryo, ignoramus, lubber, lummox, lunkhead, oaf, pupa, robot). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | lárva (grub, larvae, pupa). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | jentik-jentik. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | larva (grub, larvae, maggot). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 幼虫 (chrysalis), 幼" (larvae), "虫 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | しちゅう (brace, fatal situation, fulcrum, in the city, prop), ようせい (application, claim, demand, development, elf, fairy, larvae, positivity, premature death, request, sprite, training), ようちゅう (chrysalis, pupa). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 벌 (Larvae, Larvas). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | laarvey. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | larva (grub). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | arvalay larva (grub, larvae, maggot, worm, wriggler). (various references) larvã (grub, maggot). (various references) личинка (grub, maggot, slug). (various references) larva (case worm, grub, maggot). (various references) larva (grub, larvae, maggot). (various references) larv (catepillar, caterpillar, grub, larva of bees, larvae, nonsense, rubbish). (various references) ตัวอ่อนของสัตว์. (various references) larva (larval), tırtıl (caterpillar, grub, knurl, miling, serration), kurtçuk (grub, maggot, worm, wriggler). (various references) личинка (grub, maggot, nymph, slug), пуголовк. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | uterus, vermiculatas, vermiculo, vermiculum, vermiculumque, vermiculus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "larva": larvae, larval, larvas. (additional references) | |
| |
"Larva" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Arva, Arvac, Avra, Jarva, klukva, laaria, laevi, laevo, lara, larah, larav, larga, laria, Larra, larsa, Larua, larv, larvea, lavam, lavan, lavar, lavat, lavay, lavia, lavo, lavoa, lavra, lbarra, leiravay, lerv, leurve, Litva, Litvak, Lovro, Luarca, Lurrve, lurv, lurve, lwra, Sarva, ulmarua. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "larva" (pronounced 'Lar"va'): Comitiva, Conferva, Conjunctiva, Contrayerva, Diva, guava, Java, Kiva, LAVA, Minerva, Nova, Oliva, Saiva, saliva, Saxicava, Sieva, silva, Siva, Ulva, Urva, Uva, Viva, Volva, Vulva. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: arval. | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-l-r-v" | |
-1 letter: alar, lava, vara. | |
-2 letters: aal, ala, ava, lar, lav, var. | |
-3 letters: aa, al, ar, la. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-l-r-v" | |
+1 letter: larvae, larval, larvas, valvar. | |
+2 letters: arrival, calvary, caravel, cavalry, gravlax, ovarial, palaver, reavail, travail, variola, velaria. | |
+3 letters: alveolar, anovular, approval, archival, arrivals, avicular, calvaria, caravels, carnival, cavalero, cavalier, gravlaks, lavalier, lavatory, palavers, precaval, reavails, salivary, salvager, travails, vacuolar, valerate, valerian, valuator, valvular, variable, variably, varietal, variolar, variolas, vascular, vicarial. | |
+4 letters: adverbial, alveolars, antiviral, approvals, avascular, averagely, avuncular, calvarias, calvaries, calvarium, carnivals, carvacrol, cavaleros, cavaliers, cavalries, evaluator, favorable, favorably, lavaliere, lavaliers, navicular, palavered, palsgrave, reavailed, revaluate, salivator, salvagers, salvarsan, travailed, traversal, vagrantly, valerates, valerians, valuators, variables, varicella, varietals, verapamil, vocabular, vulgarian. | |
+5 letters: aardwolves, abrasively, adenoviral, adverbials, alleviator, alveolarly, approvable, approvably, behavioral, calvariums, carvacrols, cavaliered, cavalierly, cavalryman, cavalrymen, clavicular, evaluators, galvanizer, intravital, invariable, invariably, labiovelar, lacerative, larvicidal, lavalieres, lavalliere, lavatories, margravial, naviculars, palavering, palsgraves, quadrivial, reavailing, reevaluate, revalidate, revaluated, revaluates, revealable, salivators, salvarsans, slavocracy, supravital, transvalue, travailing, traversals, ultraheavy, ultravacua, vacillator, vallecular, varicellas, verapamils, vernacular, vocabulary, vulgarians. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4C 61 72 76 61 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).-.. .- .-. ...- .- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001100 01100001 01110010 01110110 01100001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)L a r v a |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004C 0061 0072 0076 0061 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4667848867 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Abbreviations 15. Acronyms 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Orthography 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.