Sometimes I don’t really see just how interesting a Pokemon is until I see it in action in the games or the anime. This week’s Interesting Specimen post is about just such a Pokemon, Joltik and its evolved form, Galvantula.
I know I usually have an image of the fully evolved form of the Pokemon in question featured on these posts, but I found a really good image of Joltik and decided to use it instead of an image of Galvantula. Anyway, there are three reasons why Joltik has landed a spot in the Interesting Specimen category. First is its small size, Joltik has a height of only four inches, making it the smallest Pokemon to date. The second reason is Joltik’s typing, never before has there been a hybrid of electric and bug. The third and most obvious reason is Joltik’s diet, which consists of electricity.
It’s fascinating to see a life form that feeds on pure energy. Joltik usually feed on static electricity according to the Pokedex entries, but they can also suck power from electrical outlets. And as seen in the anime these little buggers even feed on electricity from other Electric-type Pokemon. It’s a good thing the Joltik in the anime didn’t swarm Pikachu. Otherwise the electric rodent probably would’ve ended up as a desiccated husk. But as the anime has shown, several hungry Joltik can cause some major problems.
In the Games: Joltik can be found in the Chargestone Cave, which is a fascinating location by itself. The cave is full of electromagnetic rocks that float. From what I’ve read some of these rocks need to be moved around in order to pass through the cave. Within their natural habitat, the Joltik feed on the electricity produced by these rocks. So it’s probably best that nothing scares them all out, again as seen in the anime.
Evolution: At level thirty-six, Joltik evolves into the electric spider known as Galvantula. After evolving it becomes much larger and their feeding habits seem to change a bit. I’m sure Galvantula probably still feed on electricity, but it seems they also feed on body fluids like normal spiders. Galvantula certainly seem to be a little more aggressive than their pre-evolved counterparts. Still, I think a single Joltik can wreak more havoc than an army of Galvantula.
Signature Move: Sometimes the non-Legendary Pokemon can have signature moves as well, so I thought I’d end this post by talking about Joltik and Galvantula’s signature move, Electroweb. As the name implies, Electroweb is basically an electrified spider web, which can lower the opponent’s speed when used. Joltik and Galvantula are so far the only Pokemon that can learn this move by leveling up, but other Pokemon can learn it though other ways. The original spider Pokemon, Spinarak, can learn Electroweb through breeding. There are also several Pokemon that can learn Electroweb through the use of a move tutor, including the caterpillar Pokemon, Caterpie, Weedle, and Wurmple, and their respective cocoon based evolutions. This is actually pretty cool since those Pokemon can’t learn any TM or HM moves. I’m kinda whishing that this move was around in Generation One, because it would’ve made the second gym a lot easier to beat if Charmander was chosen as the starter.
So that wraps it up for this week. Next week I’ll be covering a Pokemon from Generation One, and its Generation Four evolution. Here’s a hint, it’s another Electric-type and can benefit greatly from the Chargestone cave. I think it should be pretty easy to guess, so stay tuned.
