Là character

On a Chinese Pinyin keyboard, type la and select 蝲. Pinyin writes Mandarin pronunciation with Latin letters; the reading is là, roughly “la” with a falling tone. For 蝲蛄, enter lagu. Cangjie, a shape-based Chinese input method, lists LIDLN for 蝲.

What does 蝲 mean?

蝲 is a Chinese character used chiefly in animal names. The rhyme dictionary 《广韵》, which groups characters by rhyme, cites 蝲蟽. A 2024 entry in Taiwan’s Ministry of Education character dictionary says the older dictionary 《说文》 does not record 蝲. The 虫 component marks a creature, while 剌 supplies the sound là.

In Mandarin, 蝲蛄 names a freshwater crayfish; in Jin dialect, it can name a mole cricket. Northeast Mandarin uses 蝲蝲蛄 for mole cricket; the standard written Chinese form is 螻蛄 (simplified 蝼蛄). Japanese also writes crayfish 蝲蛄, pronounced roughly “za-ri-ga-ni.”