Lithopod family
Armored Cannon Beetle Larva
- Main article: Armored Cannon Beetle Larva.
Armored Cannon Beetle Larvae are enemies in Pikmin 2. They resemble large grubs with small blue eyes and a mouth bearing resemblance to that of the adult staged Armored Cannon Beetle. It also has a blowhole, but appears to inhale through its mouth, unlike the adult form, whose blowhole is separate. This animal behaves in much the same manner as the Armored Cannon Beetle, but turns and spits at a faster rate and has much less health. They do not have the hard exoskeleton the adults are infamous for, and are thus vulnerable on all parts of their body. Armored Cannon Beetle Larvae are strategic foes; they will position themselves on higher ground (usually on an incline) and launch rocks from there. One can make it so that this enemy's boulders hit other enemies; all that is required is that the other enemy is near (in front of) the larvae. The rocks it shoots out cannot be petrified.
Armored Cannon Beetle
- Main article: Armored Cannon Beetle.
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The Armored Cannon Beetle is the mature specimen of an Armored Cannon Beetle Larva. Strangely, it was only seen in Pikmin, whereas the larval forms were exclusive to the sequel. It is a large, black, metallic-looking beetle with a thick, impervious, rounded shell of armor, a blowhole above its head, and a mouth. It attacks by inhaling through its blowhole and subsequently spitting out rolling rocks from its mouth, crushing any Pikmin (or captain) in the way. The only way to defeat it is to clog its blowhole with a Pikmin, which will cause the beetle to expose its steaming red backside, possibly either to breathe or cool off. This is its only weak point. After a few seconds of agony, the Beetle will eject the obstructing Pikmin (which are thankfully unharmed, though they may lose their flower petals), re-cover its backside, and continue its attack. This is one of the few insect-like creatures in the series whose adult and larval stages are both seen. Strangely, Captain Olimar can destroy the boulders by punching them, but the boulders that come out of their offspring can neither be destroyed nor petrified.
Arctic Cannon Larva
- Main article: Arctic Cannon Larva.
Arctic Cannon Larvae are a subspecies of lithopod that are only present in snowy areas. Instead of spitting out boulders, it spits out snowballs that trap pikmin and sends them back on a predetermined path. Like the Armored Cannon Beetle Larva's boulders, Winged Pikmin can fly over them. The snowballs don't kill pikmin, but it can knock them into hazards or send them back to the end of the path. The paths are extremely obvious because they stay in only one place. They only time they don't stay put is in Mission Mode's Silver Lake Remix. They appear in the Distant Tundra(story mode) and Silver Lake (mission mode) and their remix stages.
Decorated Cannon Beetle
- Main article: Decorated Cannon Beetle.
Decorated Cannon Beetles have an appearance identical to Armored Cannon Beetle Larvae, except they are red instead of green. They, too, spit out stones; but their rocks home in on the captains due to magnetic substance is inside the rock which locks onto the captains' suits. This species is never found partially buried in the ground. Strangely, even when they are found in caves which are made of rusty metal (indicating the presence of iron), the space suits are the only things the rocks home in on. The adult form of this has not appeared in any Pikmin games so far, but they appear to be in the same family as the Armored Cannon Beetle.
Trivia
- The name of the creature "Lithopod" is derived from the Greek word "lithos", meaning stone (as they spit out stones), and "arthropod", due to their insect-like appearance.