Pokemon Black and White spotlight: Kurumiru, Fushide and their evolutions

Two triple-stage dual-type BUGS in the house this week -one is a nurturing mother-like forest dweller and the other is a totally vicious-looking quadupedal worm. Let's get to know these fabulous insects.

Kurumiru
#046 Unova / #540 National
Type: Bug/Grass
Species classification: Sewing Pokemon
Abilities:
Swarm – Increases power of Bug-type moves by 1.5 if user has less than 1/3 HP remaining
Chlorophyll – Speed doubles during sunny weather
Dream World abilities:
Dust Proof – Doesn't take damage from weather
Location found (Black/White): Yaguruma Forest
Wild hold items: Mental Herb (rare)
Egg groups: Bug
Capture rate: 255
Gender ratio: 50/50
Effort values: 1 Defense
Evolution family: Kurumiru > Kurumayu at level 20 > Hakakomori via Happiness

Kurumayu
#047 Unova / #541 National
Type: Bug/Grass
Species classification:???
Abilities:
Leaf Guard – Prevents status ailments during sunny weather
Chlorophyll – Speed doubles during sunny weather
Dream World abilities:
Dust Proof – Doesn't take damage from weather
Location found (Black/White): Yaguruma Forest, Route 6, Lost Forest
Wild hold items: Mental Herb (rare)
Egg groups: Bug
Capture rate: 120
Gender ratio: 50/50
Effort values: 2 Defense
Evolution family: Kurumiru > Kurumayu at level 20 > Hakakomori via Happiness

Hahakomori
#048 Unova / #542 National
Type: Bug/Grass
Species classification: Child raising Pokemon
Abilities:
Swarm – Increases power of Bug-type moves by 1.5 if user has less than 1/3 HP remaining
Chlorophyll – Speed doubles during sunny weather
Dream World abilities:
Dust Proof – Doesn't take damage from weather
Location found (Black/White): Route 6, Lost Forest
Wild hold items: Mental Herb (rare)
Egg groups: Bug
Capture rate: 45
Gender ratio: 50/50
Experience at lvl 100: 1,059,860
Base stats: 75 HP / 103 Atk / 80 Def / 70 SAtk / 70 SDef / 92 Spd / 490 Total
Effort values: 3 Attack
Evolution family: Kurumiru > Kurumayu at level 20 > Hakakomori via Happiness

At first glance at Kurumiru, I thought this evolutionary family was going to be a repeat of Caterpie/Metapod/Butterfree or Weedle/Kakuna/Beedrill families, but there aren't that many similarities here. As you can tell by the screengrab, I haven't actually evolved my precious Kurumayu yet, so I can't go into too many battle specifics. The only absolute must-have for Hahakomori's moveset is X-Scissor, the notoriously powerful Bug-type move that takes advantage of Hahakomori's excellent physical attack stat. For a Grass-type STAB, your best best is probably Razor Leaf.

As a side note, lots of puns are going on in the Hahakomori's name, and it'll be interesting to see what route the writers take when localizing its name. "Ha" probably comes from the Japanese for leaf (although it can also mean tooth), and "haha" means mother. "Komori" means babysitter, but "mori" also means forest, tying into Hahakomori's Grass-type. She's also a Pokemon that has an obvious gender to her appearance and name, but nevertheless has an equal 50/50 gender split.

Next page: Ferocious worm Pendora