Categorization of animals is often an interesting exercise in Chinese. Chinese characters do have a sort of logic to them when it comes to categorizing animals; however, strict adherence to the formalized taxonomy that we encounter in biology class is of course impossible for fairly obvious reasons 1) formalized, scientific taxonomy was developed long after Chinese characters were invented, and 2) Chinese, being character based, cannot, as English can, be used to “spell out” the scientific name of a species, as an alphabet-based language can.
Therefore when we encounter the 部手 虫 (chong2) and we don’t recognize the character, we can generally assume that the character has something to do with an animal (though not necessarily an insect in the formal sense.)
Below are several categories of creatures which often have a 虫 in their names.
• Clam: 蛤蜊 (ge2li4)
• Snail: 蜗牛 (wo1niu2)
• Pearl Oyster: 蚌 (bang4)
Amphibians
• Toad: 蛤蟆 (ha2ma1)
• Frog: 蛙 (wa1)
Reptiles
• Snake: 蛇 (she2)
• Lizard: 蜥蜴 (ti1yi4)
Mythological Creatures (Dragons)
• Rain Dragon: 蛟 (jiao1)
• Drake: 虬 (qiu2)