Buzz
For nearly two decades, Pokemon has been a global phenomenon, generating billions in revenue. The recently launched Pokemon Go has taken the world by storm, while a new lineup of Nintendo 3-DS games is expected this fall. With countless virtual creatures to collect and trade, Pokemon takes its inspiration from a vast range of sources. While some, like dog, lizard, and butterfly Pokemon, are easy to recognize, others are more unusual, obscure, and at times, downright surprising.
10. Manaphy - The Carnivorous Sea Angel
The famous water Pokémon Manaphy, featured in its own film, has charmed fans with its endearing and angelic look. Despite its innocent appearance, this creature draws inspiration from the predatory clione, a type of sea slug also known as the 'sea angel.' Found in polar regions, these tiny beings are swept onto Japanese shores by winter ice floes each year. They’ve become so popular that they’ve been featured on merchandise, candy, and even in various cartoons alongside Hello Kitty.
Despite their cute, marketable appearance, clione are fierce predators. They primarily hunt other swimming mollusks, using retractable tentacles, hidden inside their sac-like heads, which are covered with tiny barbs. These tentacles allow them to extract snail prey from their shells.
9. Mawile: The Mythical Two-Mouthed Woman
Mawile is a peculiar steel-type Pokémon that turns its back to its foes, confronting them with a large set of snapping jaws located on the back of its head. Its Japanese name, 'Kucheat,' offers a significant clue about its origins. Mawile is inspired by the 'futakuchi-onna,' or 'two-mouthed woman,' a classic figure from Japanese mythology.
In myth, this character is usually depicted as a regular human woman who grows a second mouth on the back of her head, often as a result of starving herself to please an abusive husband. This additional mouth acts independently, consuming food and voicing the woman's true feelings about her cruel spouse.
8. Parasect: A Fungal Infection
The Pokémon Paras is a charming little creature, resembling a sap-sucking insect in its nymph stage, similar to a cicada. It spends its time underground, feeding on tree roots, just like its real-life counterpart. However, Paras has an intriguing twist – it carries mushrooms on its back. While a cicada would eventually grow wings, Paras evolves into Parasect, a creature with vacant eyes and an even larger mushroom that is believed to take over its brain.
Biology enthusiasts and zombie fans will likely recognize the disturbing genus of parasitic fungi known as Cordyceps. This genus is famous for growing on insects and even controlling their behavior. In the case of Paras and Parasect, the relevant species is Cordyceps sobolifera, which attaches to cicadas in their nymph stage, killing them before they can emerge as adult winged insects.
7. Kricketune: The Violin Beetle
The bug Pokémon Kricketune, named after a cricket, is known for producing music by rubbing parts of its body, much like real crickets. However, its appearance is inspired by an entirely different insect – the violin beetle, or Mormolyce phyllodes.
This insect truly resembles a walking violin and has been featured in other Japanese media, such as Kamen Rider and Animal Crossing. While the actual beetle is silent, its Pokémon counterpart makes use of its violin-like shape, transforming it into the cricket of the Pokémon world. In contrast to Kricketune, Mormolyce beetles are predatory, using their long, slender necks to hunt insects beneath tree bark, and when threatened, they can release a paralyzing toxin from their backs.
6. Sableye: The Hopkinsville Goblin
Sableye is one of the more bizarre and unsettling Pokémon, a dual-type 'dark' and 'ghost' creature that dwells far underground, feeds on rocks, and has crystalline eyes. Its appearance resembles a space alien more than a typical Pokémon, which is exactly the intended reference in its design.
On August 21, 1955, in the town of Kelly, Kentucky, two families reported being attacked overnight by mysterious 'goblins' with large, round heads, pointed bat-like ears, slender bodies, three-clawed hands, and huge, glowing circular eyes. These creatures were quickly assumed by the media to be extraterrestrial visitors, and the sensational story spread worldwide, gaining such popularity with Japanese UFO enthusiasts that these 'goblins' continue to be sold as toys.
5. Escavalier: The Snail-Hunting Beetle
Escavalier is a 'bug' and 'steel' type Pokémon with a uniquely complex life cycle within the game. It begins as the small beetle Karrablast, which then transforms into Escavalier after being traded for a Shelmet, a snail Pokémon. Once the trade happens, Shelmet sheds its shell and evolves into Accelgor, while Karrablast takes the shell and gains its armored form as Escavalier.
While this may seem unusual, it’s inspired by real-life nature. Several species of predatory Carabid beetles are known to hunt snails, using forked jaws and long, slender heads to reach into the snails' shells and remove their prey. The real beetles don’t steal the shells, but fascinatingly, a different group of beetles was found to do just that in a recent study. As larvae, these beetles attack snails, bore into their shells to hollow them out, and later use the shells as a safe place to molt and eventually pupate into adult beetles.
4. Woobat: The Honduran White Bat
This flying/psychic-type Pokémon resembles a perfectly round, fluffy white bat known for being incredibly loving and affectionate. It leaves heart-shaped marks with its nose and requires a high 'friendship' stat to evolve into the more powerful Swoobat. In reality, a white bat with a similar social nature, Ectophylla alba, exists in the wild.
These small bats live in tightly bonded groups, often consisting of just a mated pair and their few offspring. Interestingly, there is a rare 'shiny' version of Woobat, which features green fur instead of white. This phenomenon occurs in the real-life species as well. The bats roost beneath leaves, and as sunlight filters through, it can make their white fur appear green, helping them blend in and avoid predators.
3. Rowlet: The Pueo
Rowlet, the final new Pokémon introduced in 2016, is the grass-type starter (like Bulbasaur) players can choose in Pokémon Sun and Moon. It takes the form of a small, round owl with a leafy bow tie. However, it's not just any owl – the setting of these new Pokémon games is based on the Hawaiian Islands, and they are filled with references to Hawaiian culture and wildlife. As such, Rowlet is inspired by the Pueo, Hawaii’s sole native owl species.
Unlike most owls, the Pueo digs nests on the ground and is one of the few owls that are active during the day rather than at night. These unique traits help explain why Rowlet also has plant-like, chlorophyll features.
2. Wimpod: The Wharf Roach
Wimpod is another addition from Pokémon Sun and Moon, a water/bug type crustacean that feeds on trash along the shoreline. Known for its timidity, Wimpod will flee from battle as soon as it’s attacked. It bears some resemblance to a trilobite or horseshoe crab, but it is most closely related to a group of isopod crustaceans in the Ligia genus, commonly known as 'sea slaters' or 'wharf roaches.'
Much like its Pokémon counterpart, these isopods are quick and highly skittish, quickly retreating into rocky crevices and seaweed piles whenever a shadow looms overhead. Once the coast is clear, they emerge to feast on algae, decaying fish, and other decomposing material that has washed ashore.
1. Cutiefly: The Parasitic Bee Fly
Cutiefly is a newly introduced Pokémon, revealed for the upcoming Pokémon: Sun and Moon games set to release in November 2016. This tiny bug/fairy type feeds on flower nectar and resembles a cross between a bee and a hummingbird. However, its design is inspired by a real insect related to such troublesome creatures as houseflies and mosquitoes.
Bee flies, or Bombylids, are harmless-looking pollinators in their adult form, but their resemblance to a bumblebee hides a darker reality. These insects are deadly parasites of solitary, burrowing bees. After laying an egg in the entrance of a bee’s nest, the maggot feeds on the host's food reserves and ultimately consumes the larvae, taking over the nest while the parent bees remain unaware. This process is eerily similar to the fairy tales where fairies swap human babies for 'changelings.'
