Dictionary:

larva

  (lär'və)

1. The newly hatched, wingless, often wormlike form of many insects before metamorphosis.
2. The newly hatched, earliest stage of any of various animals that undergo metamorphosis, differing markedly in form and appearance from the adult.
3. Roman Mythology. A malevolent spirit of the dead; a lemur.

[Latin lārva, specter, mask (because it acts as a specter of or a mask for the adult form).]

WORD HISTORY   The word larva referring to the newly hatched form of insects before they undergo metamorphosis comes from the Latin word lārva, meaning “evil spirit, demon, devil.” To understand why this should be so, first we need to know that the Latin word also was used for a terrifying mask, and in Medieval Latin it could mean “mask or visor.” Larva is therefore an appropriate term for that stage of an insect's life during which its final form is still hidden or masked, and New Latin lārva was thus applied in 1691 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who originated our system of classifying plants and animals. The word larva is first recorded in English in its scientific sense in 1768, although it had been used in its “spirit” sense in 1651 in a way that foreshadowed the usage by Linnaeus.

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An independent, immature stage in a life cycle in which the stage is unlike the parent and must undergo changes in form and size to reach the adult stage. There may be one or several, three is common, larval stages in the one life cycle. In fish larvae are also called fry.

• l. currens — a variant of larva migrans caused by Strongyloides stercoralis, in which the linear progress of the lesions is much more rapid.
• cutaneous l. migrans — creeping eruption; a convoluted, thread-like skin eruption in humans and other species which appears to migrate; caused by the burrowing beneath the skin of roundworm larvae, particularly Ancylostoma, Strongyloides and Gnathostoma spp. A. braziliense, A. caninum, B. phlebotomum can cause the disease.
• ocular l. migrans — infection of the eye with the larvae of the roundworm Toxocara canis or T. cati, which may lodge in the choroid or retina or migrate to the vitreous; on the death of the larvae, a granulomatous inflammation occurs, the lesion varying from a translucent elevation of the retina to massive retinal detachment and pseudoglioma.
• visceral l. migrans — a condition due to prolonged migration of larvae of animal nematodes in human tissues other than skin, commonly caused by larvae of the roundworms Toxocara canis and T. cati.

The caterpillar of Proserpinus proserpina, an insect larva

A larva (Latin; plural larvae) is a juvenile form of animal with indirect development, undergoing metamorphosis (for example, insects or amphibians).

The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly. Larvae often have special (larval) organs which do not occur in the adult form. The larvae of some species can become pubescent and not further develop into the adult form (for example, in some newts). This is called neoteny.

It is a misunderstanding that the larval form always reflects the group's evolutionary history. It could be the case, but often the larval stage has evolved secondarily, as in insects. In these cases the larval form might differ more from the group's common origin than the adult form.

The early life stages of most fish species are considerably different from juveniles and adults of their species and are called larvae.

Names of various kinds of larvae:

Animal	Name of larvae
Hydrozoa	planula
Freshwater mussels	glochidium
Many crustaceans	nauplius
Decapoda	zoea
Butterflies and moths	caterpillar
Beetles	grub or Scarabaeoidea, triangulin
Flies	maggot
Mosquitos	wiggler
Bees	schadon
Fish (generally)	larva
Lamprey	ammocoete
Eels	leptocephalus
Amphibians	tadpole, polliwog
Certain Mollusca, annelids	trochophore
Dragonflies and Grasshoppers	nymph

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Common misspelling(s) of larvae

• lavae

Dansk (Danish)
n. - larve

Nederlands (Dutch)
larf, larve

Français (French)
n. - larve

Deutsch (German)
n. - Larve

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - προνύμφη, κάμπια (εντόμου)

Italiano (Italian)
larva

Português (Portuguese)
n. - larva (f) (Zool.)

Русский (Russian)
личинка, гусеница

Español (Spanish)
n. - larva

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - (zool.) larv

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
幼虫

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 幼蟲

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 유충 , 애벌레

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 幼虫, 幼生

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) يرقه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮זחל‬

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