larvas

Larvas, or larvae in English, are the immature forms of many animals that undergo metamorphosis. They typically look and live very differently from the adults, and often occupy a separate ecological niche. Larval stages follow fertilization and hatching from eggs and are frequently specialized for dispersal, feeding, or growth in early life, before reaching the mature form.

Not all animals have larval stages. Those with incomplete metamorphosis produce nymphs that resemble smaller adults and gradually reach the adult form. In contrast, animals with complete metamorphosis pass through distinct larval, pupal, and adult stages, and the larva often looks very different from the adult.

Examples by group include insects such as caterpillars (butterflies and moths), maggots (flies), grubs (beetles), and various larval forms in other arthropods; amphibians such as tadpoles; and marine invertebrates such as trochophore and nauplius larvae in mollusks and crustaceans, or pluteus stages in echinoderms. Some crustaceans have free-swimming nauplius larvae that disperse with currents. Larval forms can be planktonic or benthic, feeding on different resources than adults.

Significance: By occupying different habitats and feeding on different resources than adults, larvae reduce competition between life stages and can enable wider species distributions. Larval life cycles are influenced by environmental conditions, food availability, and predation pressures, and they affect the timing of reproduction and overall survival.