About
The character 螵 (piāo) is a phono-semantic compound, combining the semantic radical 虫 (huǐ), which indicates an insect or虫-related meaning, with the phonetic component 票 (piào). It appears almost exclusively in the binomial 桑螵蛸 (sāngpiāoxiāo), denoting the egg case of a praying mantis. The radical places it within the domain of insects, and its primary usage is in traditional Chinese medicine, where this egg case is a recognized ingredient. Outside these specific entomological and pharmacological contexts, 螵 has no independent meaning or general lexical function.