LARVA

noun (plural ~e; also ~s) Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, specter, mask; akin to Latin lar Lar Date: 1768 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, 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, ~l adjective