孓

孓 (jué) is a pictograph of a child with only a right arm, mirroring 孑 (jié), which has only a left arm, and 了 (liǎo), which has no arms, all derived from 子 (zǐ, child). Originally it conveyed something short, lacking, or solitary. Today it never appears alone; it is fixed in the compound 孑孓 (jiéjué), the biological term for mosquito larvae, where the two characters visually evoke the jerky, bending movements of the wriggling insects.