U+879F "螟" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character
U+879F "螟" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese ideograph that primarily refers to a type of insect, specifically the rice stem borer or similar crop-damaging moths in the family Pyralidae. In classical and modern usage, it often appears in compound terms like "螟蛉" (mingling), which originally described a kind of parasitic wasp larva but later became a metaphor for an adopted child. The character is composed of the radical for "insect" (虫) and the phonetic component "冥" (ming), indicating both its biological category and approximate pronunciation. Beyond entomology, it can also carry a connotation of something that damages or consumes from within, such as in the phrase "螟害" (insect blight), reflecting its agrarian symbolism of pestilence and hidden harm.