Lithopod family

The lithopod family consists of creatures that can spit or spew a variety of substances, usually in the form of a ball, from their mouths.

Acidic Cannon Beetle


Launches balls of acid at its attackers.

Arctic Cannon Beetle Larva


The Arctic Cannon Beetle Larva is of a brighter whitish-green color compared to the Armored Cannon Beetle 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
The Armored Cannon Beetle is the mature specimen of an Armored Cannon Beetle Larva. Strangely, it was only seen in, 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


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 Larva


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.

Firesnout Beetle Larva


Firesnout Beetles are a lithopod encountered in ''Hey! Pikmin''. They resemble Armored Cannon Beetle Larvae, but are much smaller. Their skin is bright orange and they have a brown striped shell with five "vents" near the front. They also only have two pairs of legs. Firesnout Beetles appear in stages based around descending with Winged Pikmin, and serve as obstacles. They reside inside of walls and periodically spew fire directly in front of themselves, so the player must delay Olimar's descent, lest he and his Pikmin get burned. They can be defeated by a single Pikmin being thrown at them, but it is recommended to use Red Pikmin or wait until they have stopped breathing fire.

Giga Volatile Armored Cannon Beetle
This is a larger version of the Volatile Armored Cannon Beetle, but it is so much larger that a different tactic is required to beat it. To see more about it, click on the name above.

Greater Lithopod
The Greater Lithopod is a distant ancestor of the Armored Cannon Beetle that has a weaker carapace and can only expel fragments of stone.

Lithomin
An unspecified lithopod species infected by a parasitic Pikmin.

Tropical Cannon Beetle


This lithopod is an island-dwelling creature vaguely resembling a coconut. Its boulders are coated in tar and leave behind trails as they roll. The tar is sticky to pikmin who aren't Black Pikmin. After it unclogs its blowhole, it begins spitting tar globs everywhere out of stress, and then aim for Pikmin caught in the tar.

Tundra Cannon Beetle
This is a furry lithopod that shoots snowballs at foes.

Volatile Armored Cannon Beetle


This shoots bomb rocks. It has an armored shell.

Volatile Armored Cannon Beetle Larva


This is larval form of the Volatile Armored Cannon Beetle. It shoots bomb-rocks.