A larva is a distinct juvenile form that many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Here are some key characteristics of larvae:

• Larvae are frequently adapted to different environments than adults. For example, some larvae such as tadpoles live almost exclusively in aquatic environments, but can live outside water as adult frogs.
• Animals in the larval stage will consume food to fuel their transition into the adult form. In some organisms like polychaetes and barnacles, adults are immobile but their larvae are mobile, and use their mobile larval form to distribute themselves.
• Some larvae are dependent on adults to feed them. In many eusocial Hymenoptera species, the larvae are fed by female workers.
• Larvae can be categorized into different types based on their physical characteristics. For example, caterpillars are the larval stage of butterflies and moths, and have 5 or fewer pairs of fleshy legs. Mosquito larvae are very distinctive, with a wider thorax than abdomen and a distinct air tube at the end of the abdomen. Larvae of beetles or flies are vermiform, meaning they resemble maggots.

Larvae are an important part of the life cycle of many animals, and can have unique adaptations and characteristics that differ from their adult forms.