螵蛸

Noun

 * 1) egg-case of the praying mantis

Etymology 1
Compound of,  presumably from a vague visual similarity. The spelling is from. First cited in the, the oldest surviving medical work in Japanese.

Noun

 * 1)  a mantis egg case

Etymology 2
Might be from, or might instead be a relatively recent borrowing from written. This hyōshō pronunciation is not listed in dictionaries consulted to date,   and online searches of the Japanese web suggest that this pronunciation might be limited to Chinese medicine contexts.

Noun

 * 1)   a mantis egg case