About
The character 螨 is a phono-semantic compound identifying a microscopic organism. Its left-side semantic radical 虫 (chóng), meaning insect, categorizes it as a small creature like an arthropod. The right-side component 满 (mǎn), meaning full, provides the pronunciation. The traditional form 蟎 pairs the unsimplified phonetic 滿 with the same insect radical. The character specifically denotes mites, tiny arachnids that are often parasitic or pests. It thus combines a general taxonomic classifier for bugs with a phonetic element to name a particular type of small arthropod.