The Horned Cannon beetle is likely the same enemy as the "Armored Cannon Beetle" from pikmin 1. In Olimar's notes, he states that the Horned Cannon Beetle was "once mistaken" for an Armored cannon beetle implying his previous identification of the species was wrong. The reason I believe this is because Olimar says the same things about some other Pikmin 1 debut enemies. "Although initially identified as a juvenile Bulborb" and "Originally classified as a spotty bulborb" to name a few. It would make sense if their pages were combined. -KiwiLuvsPie
Reply: In Pikmin 1 though, he even says it isn't a juvenille Bulborb though, it wasn't a retcon from 2. And wouldn't it be the larva who were misidentified if it was the case? Or is it retconning that the larva were discovered first? -tarponpet
- I was less sure at first, but the fact that the "Horned" refers to its blowhole ("Males of this species are known for their hornlike blowhole") makes me think it could be a retcon. But also, why would the original be mistaken for an Armored Cannon Beetle if the blowhole is so relevant? It seems like a big thing to miss, unless Armored Cannon Beetles also have blowholes. Or, the HCB was just assumed to be the adult form of the Armored Larva without having ever seen a true Armored Cannon Beetle.
This could also be a situation like Pikmin 3's Iridescent Flint Beetle, where the redesign was contextualized as a subspecies. It's just a weird decision in the first place. --GopyXP (talk) 02:46, July 27, 2023 (EDT)
So I've completely changed my mind, the Horned Cannon Beetle IS the Lithopod from Pikmin 1, turns out its trying to fix a long standing transaltion issue. In the jappanese, the armored cannon larva was always meant to be the continental species (known as strong armed cannon beetles in the guide). The one in the first game is invasive. So yeah, the enemy from the first game is now known as a Horned Cannon Beetle and the articles should be merged. The Armored Cannon Beetle species the larva belongs to now could also be refered to as the Strong-armed cannon beetle as an alt name technically - -Tarponpet 5:44 PM July 27, 2023 (EST)
I can vibe with that, but in that case, why not change the name of the larva? They have the weaker carapace after all, oh well. If in the end the larva was the faker all along then I'm happy, our Cannon Beetle boy is still our same migrant. I imagine the confusion comes from weird wording? In the player's guide it almost reads like the Strong-Armed Cannon Beetle is the technical name for the Armored, I imagine when the localization team looked at it for 2 they made the mistake of assuming they were the same creature. -Ninpan