a stage in the individual development of many invertebrates and some vertebrates (fishes and amphibians) in which the nutrient reserves of the egg are insufficient to complete embryonic development.
An organism in the larval stage is self-sufficient. Usually it has special organs not characteristic of the adult form but lacks other organs characteristic of the adult. In many animals, the existence of the larval stage is determined by the differences in the modes of life of the early stages of development and that of the adult stage; thus, the trochophore, characteristic of polychaetes and many mollusks, is free-swimming, but the adult form is benthic. The presence of a larva is sometimes associated with a change in habitat in the course of development. For example, many amphibian larvae are adapted to aquatic life, whereas the adult animals are adapted to dry land. In sessile or sluggish marine animals, a free-swimming larva ensures offspring distribution. This is true of the larvae of sponges and coelenterates (paren-chymula, amphiblastula, planula) and of echinoderms and enteropneusts (dipleurula).
The metamorphosis of the larva to the adult animal consists in the restructuring of the larva’s organization; the more profound that restructuring, the greater will be the difference between the larva and the adult organism. The changes that occur in the metamorphosis of certain invertebrates (nemertines, echinoderms, and insects) are especially pronounced. For example, in higher insects in the pupal stage (which follows the larval stage), almost all of the larval organs are destroyed. The organs of the adult animal are formed de novo from special rudiments called imaginal disks. The larvae of some animals retain the structural characteristics of ancestral forms. For example, phylogenetic significance of this sort is ascribed to the larvae of sponges and coelenterates (parenchymula, planula) and to the caudate larvae of ascidians, which resemble a free-swimming ancestor in structure.
A. V. IVANOV