How to Use larva in a Sentence

larva

noun
  • The larva of a butterfly is called a caterpillar.
  • The wasp larva eats the moth egg from the inside, and a wasp hatches.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Feb. 2021
  • Their larva can grow in soil and be passed along in whatever grows in that soil.
    — Rebecca Kurson, Good Housekeeping, 17 Jan. 2018
  • Adults don’t often feed on Heuchera leaves, but their larvae love the roots.
    — Margaret Lauterbach, idahostatesman, 11 Apr. 2018
  • Named for its host plant, this native striped beetle can chew leaf holes as both an adult and a larva.
    — Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 16 Feb. 2023
  • Each year, flurries of tiny sea star larvae spend the first stage of their life floating in the open ocean.
    — Veronique Greenwood, New York Times, 18 June 2018
  • Cutting open the gall when green will reveal the wasp larva in the center.
    — Pamm Cooper, Hartford Courant, 9 May 2026
  • The eggs hatch, and the new larvae burrow under the bark to start the cycle again.
    — John Myers, Twin Cities, 17 Jan. 2017
  • The hope here is that oyster larva will catch hold of the hard limestone rock and grow reefs there once again.
    — Ike Morgan | [email protected], al, 15 Aug. 2023
  • The wasp lays its eggs on young whiteflies, which are eaten by hatching larvae.
    — Sindya N. Bhanoo, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2016
  • This larva belongs to tornaria, a kind of acorn worm that likes to live in plankton.
    — Andrew Moseman, Discover Magazine, 20 Apr. 2010
  • Look in curled leaves that often contain webs with the larva stages — often called worms.
    — Tom MacCubbin, The Orlando Sentinel, 27 June 2026
  • These larvae have hatched from a yellow-orange egg that was laid in a small cluster on a leaf.
    — Margaret Lauterbach, idahostatesman, 24 May 2017
  • The butterflies also use the plant as a home and a nursery for their larvae.
    — Jacqueline L. Urgo, Philly.com, 30 Sep. 2017
  • First, the wasp's tiny larvae hitch onto the spider's abdomen.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 30 Apr. 2019
  • Both beetles and moths go through a four-stage life cycle of egg, larva (grub), pupa, and adult.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Both beetles and moths go through a four-stage life cycle of egg, larva (grub), pupa, and adult.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 18 Apr. 2026
  • The zooids start as a single larva floating in the water among the plankton.
    — Ashley MacKin Solomon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Oct. 2025
  • The animal is a large male that may have hitched a ride as a larva in the ballast water of a boat.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 May 2025
  • The eggs develop into small larva that spin cocoons where the adults form.
    — Kym Pokorny, OregonLive.com, 28 Jan. 2018
  • In the game, one player is the ant and wasp, the other player is the beetle larva and adult.
    — Lesley Evans Ogden, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Loner bees leave a blob of pollen on the egg and wipe their hands of it, whereas social species dote on their larvae.
    — Quanta Magazine, 6 May 2014
  • The tree’s failure to kill this larva was a strike against its future in the breeding program.
    — Gabriel Popkin, Science | AAAS, 12 Nov. 2020
  • The eggs hatch in seven to 10 days, and the larvae begin feeding on the turf.
    — Dan Gill, NOLA.com, 29 July 2017
  • The flies hatch from larvae that burrow in the lake sediment for two or three years, Wills said.
    — Anna Bauman, Detroit Free Press, 21 June 2019
  • Screwworm is actually a fly that gets its name from how its larva infects a host.
    — Cara Lynn Shultz, People.com, 26 Aug. 2025
  • These brown, dingy-looking adult stages of the sod webworm could lay eggs that produce the turf-feeding larva.
    — Tom MacCubbin, orlandosentinel.com, 24 Aug. 2019
  • And to ensure their safe passage from larva to adulthood, these wasps often gain more than just a meal from their hosts.
    — Christie Wilcox, Scientific American, 1 May 2017
  • The science site suggests using boiling water and a small amount of bleach to get rid of larvae.
    — Jennifer Earl, Fox News, 7 Sep. 2018
  • The larvae were perfect for the purpose at hand on a sweltering summer day.
    — Shannon Tompkins, Houston Chronicle, 6 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'larva.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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