The Inconsistent Cannon Beetles

Whoever is the first person to get the musical reference you are super cool

[Bulbthemin]

we still need the adult decorated cannon beetle ngl

[churupinha]

Its so weird how the cannon beetle receives a very slight redesign and they consider that a different species, but then the creeping chrysanthemum looks completely different and its never mentioned and they pretend its the exact same species as in pikmin 2

[redraptox]

Something I read from the piklopedia is that the regular armored cannon beetle is almost extinct because of the horned cannon beetle.

[MadMewMew-mueq]

'Its pretty easy to defeat'
*5 billion blue ghosts in the background*

[astrid]

I saw a post on tumblr about this; apparently the armored cannon beetle and armored cannon beetle larva have different scientific names in Japanese, but the translators for Pikmin 2 missed that. In Pikmin 4 they named it the Horned Cannon Beetle and gave it a different scientific name to correct it, and included a joke in its entry about how its often misidentified as a fully grown Armored Cannon Beetle

[ShuckleShellAnemia]

It’s confusing but I think the implication from the Pikmin 4 piklopedia is that the horned cannon beetle *is* the armored cannon beetle from Pikmin 1, but was misidentified as an armored cannon beetle; that is, the whole thing is a way to say “this big beetle is actually not the same species as these juvenile larva”

[echo_echoes]

It's a strange pattern. And I can't help but wonder if the horned cannon beetle was going to be a remodeled armored cannon beetle before it was instead chosen to be different

[Mariofan]

Honestly, I think the Horned Cannon Beetle and the Armored Cannon Beetle are the same thing. They look the same outside of the slightly bigger horns on it's face, which doesn't seem like a big enough change to have it be a new variant.

However, this kind of name change is something they've done in the past with a different creature... the Red Bulborb. Originally called the Spotty Bulborb, it was reclassed in Pikmin 2 when more variants were discovered. And what do we see discovered in Pikmin 4? The Arctic Cannon Beetle, a proper new variant of the Horned Cannon Beetle.

The horns didn't make it a new variant... it was just reclassed to help it fit with the new one.

I feel like the name change would've happened sooner when the Cannon Beetle Larvas were introduced, but it took so long for it to return.

TL;DR: The Horned and Armored Cannon Beetles are probably the same thing, because of how the series tends to handle new species variants.

[hoodedman]

I once had a swooping snitchbug throw my Pikmin in an armored cannon beetle’s weakpoint, after which I killed the beetle with minimal losses… It was very surprising but very helpful.

[thekindcat]

when i first play pikmin 1, i got confused about the armore bettle, i didn't know how to fight him except for now 😂

[Nic_]

Horned Cannon Beetle cannot be a different species whilst Creeping Chrysanthemum is apparently the same exact one from 2 despite looking nothing like it

[superguy]

I thought that the Horned Cannon beetle was just what it was renamed to after previously mistaking it for the Armored Cannon Beetle? Like Spotty Bulborb vs Bulborb. We've never seen a real Armored Cannon Beetle because they're an endangered species. Like the elusive Burrowing Snagrow oft mentioned by our boi Olimar

[Simply_Dimplyy]

The lithopods have ways been my favorite family since pikmin, keep up the great work champ!!!

[drungaodys]

just imagine olimar in pikmin 2 coming back just when all larvae beetles are already on their maturity

[jonlevidalkvistagustsson]

It is immplied that we have never actually seen the armored cannon beetle and the horned one was simply mustaken for it1

[anthonyoliver]

The horned cannon beetle is also stated as not being native to where it’s found so that could’ve reduced the number of adult armored cannon beetles by it creating foreign competition for it.

[amidalaprin]

Killing them with their own boulder id never thought of... I was more just terrified when I saw that rock PULL A 180 FOR THE FIRST TIME.

[flatwoodscryptid]

I believe the implication was supposed to be that the Pikmin 1 Cannon Beetle was also Horned, but that got lost a bit in translation.

[Mr.Feather]

The music choice of the Boulder chase from crash bandicoot 1 is surprisingly perfect

[ryuchan]

I love the Boulders/Boulder Dash music in the back ground