Used specifically in a biological or scientific context referring to early life stages.

Biology Specific

Implies a temporary phase that an organism undergoes before reaching its adult form.

Temporary Phase

Often associated with the process of metamorphosis in insects or amphibians.

Metamorphosis

Larval can metaphorically describe something that hasn’t fully developed its potential.

Metaphorical Use

Suggests the idea that further growth or development is expected in the future.

Potential Growth

May be used outside of science to describe early stages of projects or careers.

Non-scientific Use

 Turns out, biologists can use these various body symmetries to figure out which animals are related to which. For instance, we saw that starfish and sea urchins have five-fold symmetry. But really what we should have said was adult starfish and sea urchins. In their larval stage, they're bilateral, just like us humans.

The science of symmetry...

 sort of flower species that I'm looking at the only one that the really important novel fruit species is the concrete soms so no Doubt's being in this area lots and lots of concrete soms around and when I say larval food that is where the adult will land lay the eggs and the caterpillars like what we saw before

Safari Live - Day 320 PIPE...

 even adjacent reefs, helping guide them toward their preferred adult habitats. Many will head for far-flung locales miles away from their birth place. But some will use smell and other sensory cues to navigate back to the reefs where they were born, even if they remain in the larval stage for months.

The secret lives of baby...

 remember caterpillars feed on leaves and butterflies fly around it's even more remarkable evolution can actually act on the larval form and the adult form in a completely independent manner so you might sometimes run into a caterpillar that looks completely different so two

What metamorphosis can...

 And then there's the insects' mighty power of metamorphosis. This trait not only transforms insects, but also helps them maximize the available resources in an ecosystem. Take butterflies. In their larval caterpillar form, they chomp hungrily through leaves at a rapid rate

Why are there so many...

 To answer this question, we need to flip back in the family album to some baby pictures. Fireflies completely reinvent their bodies as they grow. They spend the vast majority of their lifetime, up to two years, in this larval form.

Sara Lewis: The loves...

 larvae of the ant lion this creature can remain in the larval stage for up to three years like the big cats this specimen is in Africa although antlion species can be found in warm regions around the world these Lions have

Antlion Death Trap PIPE...

 So an additional layer of parasitism above the mind controlling one. It's pretty cool. So this theme of trying to protect that delicate larval stage... that pupation, that's a common theme.

Zombie Parasites PIPE Nat...

 for protection and prey capture. Even baby jellyfish, the size of a pencil eraser, have the ability to sting. Larval jellyfish, ephyrae, look like tiny flowers pulsating in the sea.

How does a jellyfish...

 Today, we know the freshwater eel lifecycle has five distinct larval leptocepheli, miniscule glass eels, adolescent elvers, older yellow eels, and adult silver eels.