Mosquito variant

It is another written form of 蚊, the Chinese word for “mosquito.” Character dictionaries record 䘇 as a variant; 蚊 is the standard form in ordinary modern Chinese writing.

The word-family’s history is older than the exact spelling 䘇. A recognizable 蚊 form is inscribed on 亚𠤕鼎, a bronze vessel from the late Shang; this does not establish that the same 䘇 form was used then. 說文解字, an early Chinese character dictionary, describes 蟁 as a biting flying insect, records 𧓹 as an alternate form explained by the mosquito’s dusk activity, and calls 蚊 a common form. The rhyme dictionaries 廣韻 and 唐韻 equate 䘇 with 蚊. Classical examples use mosquitoes as biting nuisances and as an image of effort too small to matter.