Lithopod family

The lithopod family is a family of enemies that exists in all three Pikmin games. Members of this family have the ability to suck in air and spit out rocks. Each enemy has a different way of attacking, with their strengths and weaknesses. In Pikmin, the rocks can be destroyed by a punch, while in Pikmin 2, a Purple Pikmin's stomp can destroy them with ease. In Pikmin 2, leaders can also lie down to destroy them without receiving damage.

Members

Arctic Cannon Larva

Main article: Arctic Cannon Larva.

Official family unknown

The Arctic Cannon Beetle is a variety of lithopod that appears in Pikmin 3. It is of a brighter whitish-green color compared to the Armored Cannon Larva with a lavender underbelly. They live in snowy areas, and instead of spitting out boulders, they spit out snowballs that trap Pikmin and leaders, and sends them back on a predetermined path. Like the Armored Cannon Beetle Larva's boulders, Winged Pikmin can fly over them. The only non-visual different between it and its cousin is that snowballs don't flatten Pikmin, but can knock them into hazards or send them back to the end of the path.

Armored Cannon Beetle

Main article: Armored Cannon Beetle.

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 leader) 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.

Armored Cannon Beetle Larva

Main article: Armored Cannon Beetle Larva.

Armored Cannon Beetle Larvae are enemies in Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3. They resemble large grubs with small blue eyes and a mouth bearing resemblance to that of the Armored Cannon Beetle. It also has a blowhole, but appears to inhale through its mouth, unlike the adult form. 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.

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 leaders due to magnetic substance is inside the rock which locks onto the leaders' suits. 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.

Naming

The family name itself, "lithopod", is derived from the Greek word lithos, meaning stone, and "arthropod", due to their insect-like appearance.

Some members of this family have the words "armored" (or "armoured", in the European version of Pikmin 3), "canon", and "beetle" in their name. This is because the adult creature, the Armored Cannon Beetle, has an impenetrable carapace, much like it's wearing armor. Members of this family also shoot projectiles out of their mouth, much like a canon. Finally, the adult creature also resembles a beetle.

These creatures's Japanese names use the words フタクチドックリ^?, which translates roughly to "Tokkuri Top-Mouth". フタ^? means "top" or "lid", and クチ^? means "mouth", referring to how they have a blowhole at the top. ドックリ^? means "tokkuri", the name given to the flask used to serve sake from in a sake set, since their mouths look like the openings of those flasks.

The genus name for members of this family is Granitus, which is Latin for "granite", referring to the rocks they shoot.