How to Write 蠮 (yē) — Meaning “Digger wasp”

Imagine a digger wasp (虫) that has a single (壹, meaning 'one') stinger, and it flies around making a buzzing sound 'yē-yē'. The right side 壹 reminds you of the number one, so you can think of 'one wasp' to link the sound and shape.

This character has 23 strokes, so take care to write the right side slowly. The right side contains many horizontal strokes that should be evenly spaced and shorter than the left radical 虫. A common mistake is to make the right side too wide — keep it compact so the whole character stays balanced.

蠮 has the insect radical 虫 and a right side similar to 壹 (one), while 蠡 has a different right side that looks like 彖 (a pig's snout) and means a kind of insect or a calabash. 蠢 combines 虫 with 春 (spring) and means 'stupid' or 'wriggling', and is much more common. Visually, 蠮 has more horizontal strokes on the right than 蠡, and 蠢 has a clear 春 component at the top.

蠮 is very rare and appears almost only in the classical compound 蠮螋 (yē sōu, earwig) or 蠮螉 (yē wēng, digger wasp). In modern everyday Chinese, people usually use simpler terms like 蠼螋 (qú sōu) for earwig, so you will likely only encounter 蠮 in old texts or specialized entomology references.

Common words containing 蠮 include: 蠮螋 (yē sōu) — Earwig; 蠮螉 (yē wēng) — Digger wasp / Mud dauber; 蠮螋虫 (yē sōu chóng) — Earwig.