Larva Larva A larva (plural: "larvae" ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The larva's appearance is generally very different from the adult form ("e.g." caterpillars and butterflies) including different unique structures and organs that do not occur in the adult form. Their diet may also be considerably different. Larvae are frequently adapted to environments separate from adults. For example, some larvae such as tadpoles live almost exclusively in aquatic environments, but can live outside water
Crustacean larva an "alima" larva, while in Gonodactyloidea, a "pseudozoea" develops into an "erichthus". A single fossil stomatopod larva has been discovered, in the Upper Jurassic Solnhofen lithographic limestone. The life cycle of krill is relatively well understood, although there are minor variations in detail from species to species. After hatching, the larvae go through several stages called "nauplius", "pseudometanauplius", "metanauplius", "calyptopsis" and "furcilia" stages, each of which is sub-divided into several sub-stages. The "pseudometanauplius" stage is exclusive to the so-called "sac-spawners". Until the "metanauplius" stage, the larvae are reliant on the yolk reserves, but from the "calyptopsis" stage, they begin to