螟 Stroke Order — How to Write 螟

Stroke Order

螟 is written in 16 strokes, following the standard Chinese stroke order. Start from the radical 虫, then complete the remaining strokes.

Stroke order matters in Chinese: it keeps the character balanced, and it is how dictionaries and handwriting input methods expect a character to be written.

螟 Radical and Character Components

Components:虫冥

螟 is a phono-semantic compound: 虫 (insect) carries the meaning, while 冥 indicates the sound.

Radical: 虫 + 10 more strokes

螟 Pronunciation and Pinyin

míng

Meanings of 螟 in Chinese

míng螟

The larva of various moths (e.g., rice stem borers, corn borers) that are agricultural pests, damaging crops.

田里的水稻遭受了螟虫的侵害。

The rice in the field suffered from the infestation of borers.

Mínglíng (螟蛉) refers to a green insect (larva of a pyralid moth) or, figuratively, an adopted child.

他们将这个无家可归的孩子收养，视如己出，真可谓是他们的螟蛉之子。

They adopted this homeless child and treated him as their own, truly making him their adopted son.

Common Words and Phrases with 螟

míng螟é蛾

pyralid moth

农民们仔细观察田地，发现有螟蛾在稻叶上产卵。

Farmers carefully observed the fields and found borer moths laying eggs on rice leaves.

míng螟líng蛉

Mingling (螟蛉) refers to an adopted child. The term originates from an ancient misconception mentioned in the Book of Songs, where people mistakenly believed that a certain wasp (蜾蠃) adopted a caterpillar (螟蛉) as its own offspring, rather than understanding that the wasp uses the caterpillar as a host for its larvae.

虽然他并非这家的亲生骨肉，但从小被收养，大家也都视他为螟蛉，共同抚养长大。

Although he was not the biological child of this family, he was adopted from a young age, and everyone regarded him as their adopted child, raising him together.