Right away when starting on this project I knew that I wanted to expand the full list of Bug types offered in the games. At first I thought it would just be a handful of mons that I would be adjusting. Foremost on my list was the Trapinch line, since they are very obviously based on ant-lions, and Drapion since its pre-evolution was already a Bug type. While I was reviewing Pokemon for ideas, I happened to stumble across an actual research paper that broke down every mon through Generation 7 that had any inspiration from arthropods (the arthropoda phylum). Essentially anything that could conceivably be called a bug in the real world is an arthropod, which gave me the idea that the same should be true in my hack. And now I have an almost complete list ready to go!
Arthropods include all your classic bugs: butterflies, bees, flies, spiders, beetles, scorpions, etc. The big category you might not expect, though, is crustaceans! It's time for Krabby and its saltwater friends to join the Bug crew. This will add Bug typing to the following Pokemon:
- Krabby/Kingler
- Corphish/Crawdaunt
- Clauncher/Clawitzer
- Crabrawler/Crabominable
- Binacle/Barbaracle
- Kabuto/Kabutops
I was definitely surprised by Binacle/Barbaracle but it turns out barnacles, unlike animals such as anemones and coral, are arthropods too! Arthropods also include your arachnids, and while many arachnids were already classified as Bug type (think your Ariados and Galvantulas), roping in all arachnids gets us the following:
- Drapion
- Gligar/Gliscor
Now these creepy scorpions can join the Bug quest too. Finally, lets swing back around to my initial category of Pokemon that are clearly bugs or based on bugs but are not Bug type. After some back and forth internally, I've arrived at this list:
- Dunsparce/Dudunsparce
- Trapinch/Vibrava/Flygon
- Poipole/Naganadel
- Iron Moth
I feel that some of these may need some explanation, so let me break it down.
Dunsparce
Yes, I know this takes a lot of inspiration from the mythical snake monster, Tsuchinoko. That being said, there are plenty of bug-related influences to justify the Bug typing. Its design with the stripes, wings, tail stinger, and general shape is very reminiscent of bees and according to Bulbapedia could easily be a reference to a nickname of the Tsuchinoko, bee snake. Likewise, its weird eye spots resemble many types of sphinx moth caterpillars that use similar fake eye colorations to confuse or scare away predators. The research paper I cited before thought there were enough bug-like traits on Dunsparce to put it in the order Hymenoptera along with bees, wasps, and ants. Finally, just for the sake of fun it lets me easily use the typing of Bug/Normal which only comes up one other time in the hack.
Trapinch
Honestly, I'm surprised this didn't debut as a Ground/Bug type in Gen 3 and then switch to Ground/Dragon with its evolutions. But quite obviously, Trapinch is based on an ant-lion with its design, typing, and ability in Arena Trap. I'll be going over the Trapinch line in more detail in a future post, but I like the idea of this family starting out incredibly strong to reflect the incredible strength of antlion larvae, then becoming substantially weaker as a Vibrava before bringing it back around again as the much more well-rounded Flygon.
Poipole/Naganadel
Poipole I can see an argument for as being just pure Poison type, but once it evolves...no way. Look at shiny Naganadel and tell me honestly that this is not some horrific inter-dimensional wasp. I'm waiting.
Iron Moth
It's Volcarona. That much is obvious.I'm leaning into either Bug/Poison or Bug/Steel instead of Fire/Poison. This thing looks cool and will be fun to add in some kind of event capture.
And there you have it, 19 new Bug types to take on your Bug adventure! There are still some Bug-like Pokemon that I may add in the future, but I'm still pretty on the fence about them. Namely, the Tyranitar line, Giratina, and Falinks. Larvitar and Pupitar very clearly play into the bug lifecycle, but Tyranitar is...something else. Giratina is a very grotesque bug/centipede like monster, especially in its origin-forme, but I'm not convinced it is more bug than just general ghostly nightmare type design. And Falinks, I mostly just personally really want Falinks to be a Bug type. No real justification other than it looks like a cute little caterpillar when they march and I love them. We'll see where I end up on those guys, but look forward to playing as the other 19 mons in your Bugmerald adventure!
To close, a quick note on a surprising problem I ran into. Arthropods notably do not include one very bug-ish group of animals. Worms are not bugs but actually have their own phylum of Annelida. This of course means you will not be encountering Orthworm roaming about to be caught in Bugmerald version. But this also forced me to confront one of my favorite Bug types ever, the bizarrely categorized mold Pokemon, Shuckle. What even is Shuckle? I've been digging into this for days and it really is not clear. It's called the "mold" Pokemon, it decomposes berries, it secretes acid to melt rocks, it looks like a worm, what exactly is going on here? Not even Bulbapedia knows, with guesses ranging from an endolithic fungi or mold, tiny scale insects, barnacles, mollusk or even a nematode. It really seems that Shuckle may not be an arthropod, or bug, at all.
I'm gonna give the little guy a pass, though. If it is actually based on a scale-insect or barnacle, that still gives it a home in good old phylum arthropoda. And I certainly don't want to be the one to tell it that its typing has been a lie this whole time. After all, you don't want to fuckle with Shuckle.
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