Definitions
caterpillar
Etymology
About
蠋 designates the larval stage of butterflies and moths, commonly known as a caterpillar. This phono-semantic compound uses the insect radical 虫 for its semantic category of bugs and creeping creatures. The right component 蜀 functions both phonetically and semantically, as its earliest forms depicted a larva with prominent eyes, thereby reinforcing the character’s meaning. Historically, its usage has remained strictly within entomology and agricultural contexts, with no abstract or metaphorical extensions in standard Chinese.