1650s, "a ghost, specter," from Latin larva (plural larvae), earlier larua "ghost," also "mask;" applied in biological sense 1768 by Linnaeus because immature forms of insects "mask" the adult forms. On the double sense of the Latin word, Carlo Ginzburg, among other students of mythology and folklore, has commented on "the well-nigh universal association between masks and the spirits of the dead."
例文
1. A larva metamorphose into a chrysalis and then into a butterfly.
幼虫はさなぎになり、蝶になる。
2.The larva hatches out and lives in the soil.
幼虫は孵化してから土壌で生活する。
3.A caterpillar is the larva of a butterfly.
毛虫は蝶の幼生である。
4.The tadpole is the larva of the frog.
オタマジャクシはカエルの幼生である。
5.Important changes in the embriyo or larva will probably entail changes in the mature animal.