Northeast Chinese cuisine has a dish called fried silkworm pupae.
Tips
culture
蚕蛹 (silkworm pupae) is a classic snack in Northeast China and a byproduct of the silk industry - protein-rich, often deep-fried with chili and cumin. In Korean cuisine, the pupa snack 번데기 (beondegi) shares this tradition.
memory
Radical 虫 (insect) on the left + 甬 (alleyway/bell-shaped) phonetic on the right. The 甬 also appears in 通 (to pass through) and 涌 (to surge) - a useful phonetic pivot.
Insect on the left grounds 蛹 in the bug family - silkworms, butterflies and moths all pass through a pupal stage. The radical groups it with 蝶、蛾 and 蜂, marking 蛹 as the dormant larva-to-adult transition phase.
Provides the sound yǒng unchanged. It heads a phonetic series including 桶 bucket, 通 pass-through and 涌 surge. The bell-handle meaning is unrelated, though a pupa's smooth, segmented casing does resemble a small bronze ornament - a useful mnemonic.
