larva

American  

[lahr-vuh] / ˈlɑr və /

noun

larvae plural

1. Entomology. the immature, wingless, feeding stage of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis.

2. any animal in an analogous immature form.

3. the young of any invertebrate animal.

4. Roman Antiquity. larvae, malignant ghosts, as lemures.

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larva British  

/ ˈlɑːvə /

noun

1. an immature free-living form of many animals that develops into a different adult form by metamorphosis

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larva Scientific  

/ lär′və /

larvae plural

1. An animal in an early stage of development that differs greatly in appearance from its adult stage. Larvae are adapted to a different environment and way of life from those of adults and go through a process of metamorphosis in changing to adults. Tadpoles are the larvae of frogs and toads.

2. The immature, wingless, and usually wormlike feeding form of those insects that undergo three stages of metamorphosis, such as butterflies, moths, and beetles. Insect larvae hatch from eggs, later turn into pupae, and finally turn into adults.

3. Compare imago nymph pupa

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• larval
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• larvae
  plural

Etymology

Origin of larva

First recorded in 1645–55; from New Latin; special use of Latin larva “a ghost, specter, mask, skeleton”; akin to Lares

Explanation

The immature form of many insects and amphibians is a larva. A caterpillar is one example of a larva — it has hatched from an egg and will eventually become a fully mature butterfly. You may picture a larva as a little grubby white bug, and in many cases you'd be correct. Many insects pass through a larval stage in which they resemble grubs — in fact, grubs are the larva of insects like June bugs and Japanese beetles. Other familiar larvae include tadpoles and maggots. The name, which means "evil spirit" or "terrifying mask" in Latin, comes from the idea that a larval insect's final form is hidden, or "masked."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

larva larvae

That’s because a screwworm larva “attacks living flesh,” Talbot said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

Each mite larva measures about 500 micrometers, or half a millimeter.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 28, 2026

"Over several weeks, they not only reshaped their morphological features, but also had a completely different feeding behavior, typical of a cydippid larva."

From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2024

Dr Smith said this might have been caused by high concentrations of phosphorus in the ocean where this larva briefly lived and died.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2024

I don’t realize I’m checking my palms for creeping lesions, eruptions called cutaneous larva migrans, until Grandma gives me The Eye-Roll.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

She is one of only a handful of people in the UK who are diagnosed with the brain infection each year, which is caused by the larvae of the pork tapeworm.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

For decades, researchers viewed royal jelly, a nutrient-rich substance fed to young larvae by worker bees, as the primary driver of this dramatic transformation.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026

But there’s a worse problem: grubs, the larvae of flies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

The female screwworm fly lays its larvae in a wound or an opening of an animal.

From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026

Field tests are being made in several countries: in France and Germany against larvae of the cabbage butterfly, in Yugoslavia against the fall webworm, in the Soviet Union against a tent caterpillar.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

Related Words

• grub
• worm