U+8798 "螘" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character
U+8798 "螘" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character that represents an ancient term for ants, specifically referring to the small, social insects, and it is also used in classical texts to denote a type of grub or larva. This character belongs to the CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) unified ideographs block and shares its semantic core with the more common modern character "蟻" (yǐ) in Chinese. In historical usage, "螘" appears in literary works such as the "Shiji" (Records of the Grand Historian) to describe swarming behavior, and it has a secondary meaning related to a small hill or mound, drawing a metaphorical link between ant colonies and earth formations. While less common in contemporary script, it remains a recognized variant in traditional Chinese and Japanese kanji systems, often encountered in specialized calligraphy or classical studies.