Bulborb Larva

Bulborb Larvae are enemies in Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 4. As their name would imply, they are juvenile Bulborbs. They have the typical beige snout of Bulborbs, but their behind is white with only a dab of red on the very end. A small, pointy appendage can be seen below the red spot, its use is unknown; it could be some form of tail, or an. Given that they are young, their size isn't much larger than that of a leader. They are the true juvenile grub-dogs, as Dwarf Bulborbs are members of the breadbug family and merely imitate Bulborbs. They are hard to kill in swarms, but have low health. Bulborb larvae are infamous for their ability to quickly kill Pikmin: the creature's bite is fast and fatal. However, the small creatures can be destroyed with one punch from a leader, so it is considered more effective to keep Pikmin away from the Larvae and attack with Olimar and his partner.

Bulborb Larvae are continuously born from certain Empress Bulblaxes. Only 50 can be on the sublevel at once, and once that cap is reached, the Empress falls asleep; it will reawaken once only 25 or less are alive and start producing more. If the Empress is woken up via Pikmin attacks it will also not begin to produce more until there are 25 or less left. The Empress' rolling attack can also crush these enemies, making it useful to clear out a large amount of Larvae.

Upon reaching their first molt, Bulborb Larvae metamorphose into Albino Dwarf Bulborb.

Behavior
Right as soon as they are born, the Larvae squeal and begin being active right away. They crawl along the floor, pursuing the closest leader in a straight line, and actually ignoring any Pikmin. This can be used to the player's advantage, by having one leader serve as bait. If it gets close to a leader or Pikmin, it will bite down, quickly and deadly. If it gets a Pikmin, it will chew on it for a very short amount of time. Although it can only eat one Pikmin at a time, the speed at which they feast and the sheer number of them can be devastating for an army of Pikmin. Moreover, unless the player uses an ultra-bitter spray, the creature does not release the Pikmin it is eating, which means the Pikmin cannot be saved even if the creature is supposed to be dead. The members of the Mandiblard family have a similar behavior, in. Upon dying, it will melt away, and eventually disappear; one out of every five times, the Bulborb Larva will leave behind nectar. If a Purple Pikmin does the final blow, green mucus will splat out on the ground, and the creature will be shown dying more agonizingly.

Pikmin 2
Since these larvae can only spawn from certain Empress Bulblaxes, they cannot be found in any place without one.
 * Story Mode:
 * Frontier Cavern, sublevel 8
 * Hole of Heroes, sublevel 11


 * Challenge Mode:
 * Emperor's Realm, sublevel 4

Pikmin 4
Bulborb Larvae are more common than they were in Pikmin 2. Outside battles with an Empress Bulblax, many larvae either roam freely in groups or spawn infinitely from dirt-mounds until the mounds are destroyed.


 * Areas
 * Sun-Speckled Terrace: There are four Bulborb Larva nests during the Meandering Slope night expedition.
 * Blossoming Arcadia: There are two larva nests during the Misshapen Pond night expedition.
 * Primordial Thicket: There are two larva nests during The Sylvan Gate night expedition.


 * Caves
 * Burrow of Beginnings, sublevel 1
 * Trial of the Sage Leaf: Story 7, "One Fell Jump", contains freely roaming Bulborb Larvae. Story 10, "The Purple Key", contains one larva nest.
 * Cradle of the Beast, sublevel 3: Larvae are spawned infinitely from an Empress Bulblax. There are also some freely roaming specimens in the corridor leading to the boss arena.
 * Cavern for a King, sublevel 17: Larvae fall from the ceiling each time the Empress Bulblax rolls.

Strategy
Although the larvae have quick bites, their health is rather low. A single punch from a leader is enough to kill a larva. After defeat, it has a 1 in 5 chance of dropping nectar.

In, Bulborb Larvae may spawn from certain dirt mounds. These mounds will continually produce Larvae until they are excavated, requiring the player to clear out the larvae long enough for the Pikmin to remove the mound.

Pikmin
The best way to kill a Larva with a Pikmin is to use Purple Pikmin. Purple Pikmin are capable of stunning and even killing a large group of Larvae. While eaten Pikmin can be saved by killing the creature before it finishes chewing, Bulborb Larvae are infamous for the small size of this time window, so attacking them with a leader instead is recommended.

A different strategy is to stun them with about three or four Purples, then call them back and throw a lot of Pikmin on the mother. If done quickly enough, it will roll over its larva, killing them.

It is not recommended to use Yellow Pikmin to defeat Bulborb Larva due to Yellow Pikmin's high trajectory when thrown; the Pikmin may miss the enemy and it may be too late to whistle them back. Red and Blue Pikmin may also be an unwise choice due to lower speed. White Pikmin are a better choice for speed, and in case the Bulborb Larva eats the Pikmin, their poison will at least finish them off.

Another way is to get the Pikmin you do not need and try to kill them in swarms by controlling them, though this method is not recommended as it can cause a lot of fatalities.

To note is that you should be careful with the pools of nectar, seeing that if a non-flower Pikmin touches one, it will drink it and become vulnerable until it is done.

Leaders
A single punch from a leader is sufficient to kill a Bulborb Larva. Caution is advised, though, as they may still sneak in a bite as they are dying. The Rocket Fist, found in the same dungeon as the first encounter with the larvae can be used to kill many of them at once due to its range increase on the third strike.

A tactic that can be used in the later Empress Bulblax battles is to allow several dozen Larvae to be born, then attack the Empress so it can roll around the cavern. As this happens, almost every single Larva will be killed, releasing a number of pools of nectar for the Pikmin. In the second battle inside the Frontier Cavern, the larvae can be trapped in a ledge where the Research Pod is by baiting them, and after the Empress is dead, a leader can go down and defeat all of the larvae, resulting in many nectar pools. One strategy in killing the Empress is to have one leader, hopefully one that has full health, distract its larvae near its rear end while the other leader attacks it from the front.

Another suggestion is to let it give birth to several, lead them into a corner, and keep punching them one by one to receive up to 20 drops of nectar. You should do this with a leader at full health.

Alternate
It is also possible to kill them using the Empress Bulblax herself, by standing in the hollow in front of it (as there always is), hurting the boss until it is forced to roll over, and letting it kill the larvae.

Trivia

 * Bulborb Larva do not have an animation for standing still in Pikmin 2. When viewed from out of their detection range they'll use their walking animation, appearing to endlessly wriggle in place.
 * In Pikmin 2, the model for Bulborb Larva does not have a texture file. Instead, the model uses vertex colors.
 * Prior to Pikmin 4, its scientific name (Oculus bambinii) indicated that it did not belong to the same species as its progenitor, the Empress Bulblax (Oculus matriarcha). Unfortunately, its new name (Oculus kageyamii) is still a misnomer, lacking the subspecies classification (Oculus kageyamii matriarcha) the Empress Bulblax is under.
 * Although, since Bulborb Larva are not exclusively born from the Empress Bulblax in Pikmin 4, it can be implied that each larva's subspecies is specifically unclassified given that Olimar mentions that the features that would distinguish the different Bulborb subspecies do not appear until the second molt.
 * With only 5 health points, Bulborb Larvae have the least amount of health of any enemy in Pikmin 2. In Pikmin 4, it has even less, only having one single point of HP.