How to Write 蚴 (yòu) — Meaning “Larva (character component)”

Picture a tiny young worm (虫) that is still very small and young (幼) — that is a larva. The right side 幼 looks like a little "you" (sounds like yòu) and reminds you it is the young form of a creature. So just remember: "young worm = larva (蚴)."

Write the left radical 虫 with 6 strokes, making sure the final dot is placed neatly inside the rectangle. The right side 幼 has 5 strokes: first the left part 幺 (two strokes, then right part 力 with a hook). Keep the character balanced so the left and right halves are about the same width.

蚴 (yòu) means "larva" and is often used in scientific terms like 尾蚴 (cercaria). 虹 (hóng) means "rainbow" and has 虫 plus 工 (gōng) as the phonetic, but no young meaning. 虺 (huǐ) means a venomous snake or a type of blister, and its radical is also 虫, but it is not related to larvae at all.

蚴 is a specialized character used mainly in biology and medicine to refer to larval stages of parasites, especially flukes. Common words include 尾蚴 (cercaria) and 胞蚴 (sporocyst). It is not used in everyday conversation and is mainly found in textbooks or research papers about parasitology.

Common words containing 蚴 include: 尾蚴 (wěi yòu) — cercaria (larval stage of a fluke); 胞蚴 (bāo yòu) — Sporocyst; 蚴虫 (yòu chóng) — Larva.