Webster's English Dictionary

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larva

lar.va \'la:r-v*\ \-(.)ve-, -.vi-\ \-v*l\ n or lar.vae also larvas [NL, fr. 
   L, specter, mask; akin to L lar] pl  1: the immature, wingless, and often 
   vermiform feeding form that hatches fr om 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 2: the 
   early form of any animal that at birth or hatching is fundamentally  unlike 
   its parent and must metamorphose before assuming the adult characters - 
   lar.val aj