[lar.va] n, pl lar.vae also larvas [NL, fr. L, specter, mask; akin to L lar Lar] (1768) 1: the immature, wingless, and often wormlike feeding form that hatches from the egg of many insects, alters chiefly in size while passing through several molts, and is finally transformed into a pupa or chrysalis from which the adult emerges
2: the early form of an animal (as a frog or sea urchin) that at birth or hatching is fundamentally unlike its parent and must metamorphose before assuming the adult characters -- lar.val adj