Larva

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Larva

A larva (Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
; plural larvae) is a young (juvenile) form of animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
with indirect development

Developmental biology

Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, cellular differentiation and "morphogenesis," which is the process that gives rise to biological tissues, organ s and anatomy....
, going through or undergoing metamorphosis

Metamorphosis

.Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically developmental biology after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's form or structure through cell cell growth#Cell reproduction and cell differentiation....
(for example, insect

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, amphibians, or cnidarians).

The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous....
differs from a butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is an insect of the Order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual Biological life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form....
. Larvae often have special (larval) organs which do not occur in the adult form. The larvae of some species can become pubescent

Puberty

Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads ....
and not further develop into the adult form (for example, in some newt

Newt

A newt is a salamander that lives in the water as an adult. Newts occur in the Pleurodelinae subfamily , found in North America, Europe and Asia....
s).

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Encyclopedia

A larva (Latin

Latin

Animal

Developmental biology

Metamorphosis

Insect

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous....
differs from a butterfly

Butterfly

Puberty

Newt

A newt is a salamander that lives in the water as an adult. Newts occur in the Pleurodelinae subfamily , found in North America, Europe and Asia....
s). This is a type of neoteny

Neoteny

Neoteny , also called juvenilization, is the retention, by adults in a species, of traits previously seen only in juveniles , and is a subject studied in the field of developmental biology....
. 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

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
species are considerably different from juveniles and adults of their species and are called larvae.

Names of various kinds of larvae:

Animal	Name of larva
Hydrozoa Hydrozoa Hydrozoa are a taxonomic Class of very small, predatory animals which can be solitary or colonial and which mostly live in saltwater. A few genera within this class live in freshwater....	planula Planula A planula is the free-swimming, flattened, cilium, symmetry #Bilateral symmetry larva of various cnidarian species. In all cases, the planula forms directly from the fertilized egg of a medusa, as the case in scyphozoans and some hydrozoans, or from a polyp, as in the case of anthozoans....
Many crustacean Crustacean Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles.... s	nauplius Nauplius (larva) A nauplius is the first larva of animals classified as crustaceans . It consists of a head and a telson. The thorax and abdomen, characteristic of adult crustaceans, have not developed yet....
Decapoda Decapoda The decapods or Decapoda are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimp....	zoea Zoea The zoea is a free-swimming larval stage of crustaceans. It follows the nauplius stage and precedes the post-larva.Zoea larvae swim with their thoracic appendages, as opposed to nauplii, which use cephalic appendages, and megalopa, which use abdominal appendages for swimming....
Mayflies, Grasshopper Grasshopper Grasshoppers are insects of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish them from Tettigoniidae, they are sometimes referred to as short-horned grasshoppers.... s, True Bugs Hemiptera Hemiptera is an order of insects, comprising around 80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others. They range in size from 1 mm to around 15 cm, and share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts .... , etc.	nymph Nymph (biology) In biology, a nymph is the immature form of some insects, which undergoes incomplete metamorphosis before reaching its adult stage; unlike a typical larva, a nymph's overall form already resembles that of the adult....
Dragonflies, Damselflies	naiad, nymph Nymph (biology) In biology, a nymph is the immature form of some insects, which undergoes incomplete metamorphosis before reaching its adult stage; unlike a typical larva, a nymph's overall form already resembles that of the adult....
Butterflies and moths Lepidoptera Lepidoptera is an order of insect that includes moths and butterfly. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterfly, skipper , and Hedylidae....	caterpillar Caterpillar Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous....
Beetle Beetle Beetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are placed in the order Coleoptera , which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms.... s, Bee Bee Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are a monophyly lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila.... s, Wasp WAsP WAsP is a PC program for predicting wind climates, wind resources, and power productions from wind turbines and wind farms. The predictions are based on wind data measured at stations in the same region.... s	grub
Flies Fly True flies are insects of the Order Diptera , possessing a single pair of insect wing on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax....	maggot Maggot Maggot is the common name of the larval phase of development in insects of the order Diptera . Sometimes the word is used to denote the larval stage of any insects....
Mosquito Mosquito Mosquitoes are common flying insects in the family Culicidae that are found around the world. There are about 3,500 species. They have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and six long legs.... s	wriggler
Certain molluscs Mollusca MolluscsSpelled mollusk in the USA; the spelling "mollusc" is preferred by some authors, see the reasons given by . are animals belonging to the Phylum Mollusca.... , annelid Annelid The annelids, collectively called Annelida , are a large Scientific classification of animals comprising the segmented worms, with about 15,000 modern species including the well-known earthworms and leeches.... s	trochophore Trochophore A trochophore is a type of free-swimming planktonic marine larva with several bands of cilia.By moving their cilia rapidly, a water eddy is created....
Certain molluscs Mollusca MolluscsSpelled mollusk in the USA; the spelling "mollusc" is preferred by some authors, see the reasons given by . are animals belonging to the Phylum Mollusca....	veliger Veliger A veliger is the free-swimming, planktonic larva of many kinds of Marine and fresh-water gastropod molluscs, as well as a number of bivalves ....
Freshwater mussel Mussel The common name mussel is used for members of several different families of clams or bivalve molluscs, from both saltwater and freshwater habitats.... s	glochidium Glochidium The glochidium is a special microscopic larval stage of larger freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae, the river mussels and European freshwater pearl mussels....
Lamprey Lamprey A lamprey is a parasitic marine animal with a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. While lampreys are well known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to hematophagy, these species make up the minority....	ammocoete
Fish Fish A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins.... (generally)	larva
Eel Eel True eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 19 Family s, 110 genera and approximately 600 species. Most eels are predators.... s	leptocephalus Leptocephalus A leptocephalus is the flat and Transparency larva of the eel and other members of the Superorder Elopomorpha, including the conger, tarpon, bonefish,...
Amphibian Amphibian Amphibians , such as frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians, are cold-blooded animals that metamorphose from a juvenile, water-breathing form to an adult, air-breathing form.... s	tadpole, polliwog Tadpole A tadpole or polliwog is the wholly aquatic larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian....
Echinoderm Echinoderm Echinoderms are a Phylum of Marine animals . Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone.Aside from the problematic Arkarua, the first definitive members of the phylum appeared near the start of the Cambrian period.... s	Bipinnaria Bipinnaria Bipinnaria is a first stage in larval development of Asterias that is followed by Brachiolaria. The movement and feeding is accomplished by the bands of cilia....