Radical 142 or radical insect (虫部) meaning "insect" or "worm" is one of the 29 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 6 strokes. In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 1067 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. 虫 is also the 131st indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China. The character 虫 models a worm. To derive from this, characters meaning creeping animals such as reptiles, insects, worms, amphibians, and shellfish are included in this radical. The character 虫 is used as the simplified form of 蟲 in Simplified Chinese and Japanese and occasionally in Traditional Chinese.
Evolution 虫 originally meant snake, while 蟲 meant insect. 蟲 was later simplified back to 虫 in both shinjitai and simplified Chinese characters.
Derived characters
Sinogram The radical is also used as an independent Chinese character. It is one of the Kyōiku kanji or Kanji taught in elementary school in Japan. It is a first grade kanji
References
Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1.
External links
Unihan Database - U+866B