How to Write 螬 (cáo) — Meaning “Grub / Larva”

Imagine a grub (a fat, worm-like insect) sitting on a piece of grass, and the grass blade looks like the right side 曹. You can think "Cáo the bug (虫) is crawling through the grass (曹-like shape)." The top part of 曹 resembles two blades of grass, and the bottom part looks like a mouth eating, which fits a hungry grub.

The left side 虫 has seven strokes: write the vertical stroke first, then the horizontal and vertical turns for the box, then the middle horizontal, and finally the dot. The right side 曹 has ten strokes: start with the two horizontal strokes at top, then the vertical, then the two verticals inside, the large horizontal from left to right, the small mouth at bottom, and finally the horizontal bottom closure. A common mistake is making the right side too tall or forgetting the small horizontal inside the bottom mouth.

螬 (cáo) means grub or larva, while 蝌 (kē) is used in 蝌蚪 (kē dǒu) meaning tadpole, and 蝎 (xiē) means scorpion. Visually, 螬 has the component 曹 on the right, 蝌 has the phonetic 科 (kē), and 蝎 has 曷 (hé) on the right. All share the 虫 radical but the right parts are completely different, and each refers to a different insect or animal.

螬 is not very common in everyday speech; it is mostly found in agricultural or biological contexts referring to grubs, especially in the compound 蛴螬 (qí cáo) which denotes the white grub of scarab beetles. To avoid confusion, you will rarely see 螬 alone; instead it appears in technical terms for pests that damage crops. There is no special cultural story, but it appears in classical Chinese texts about farming.

Common words containing 螬 include: 蛴螬 (qí cáo) — Grub / White grub; 螬虫 (cáo chóng) — Grub; 幼螬 (yòu cáo) — Larva.