Venomoth

A moth with a butterfly's name

The English name gives nothing away: venom and moth. The Japanese, モルフォン (Morphon), takes things in another direction and allows two readings, metamorphosis and the butterfly genus Morpho, known for its metallic-blue wings in Central and South America. The fact that the Japanese reference points to a butterfly while the English one points to a moth is not a translation mistake: it is a clue that the original design may not have been what it eventually became.

The physical description fits what real moths do. Wing scales come loose in flight, and their colour indicates the effect: dark ones are poisonous, while light ones paralyse. It follows the same logic as real butterflies and moths, whose scales come off at the slightest touch and protect them from predators and spider webs.

The swap nobody has confirmed

There is a theory that has been circulating for decades, and it is worth presenting as what it is: a theory. Venonat looks remarkably similar to Butterfree—huge red eyes, antennae, three-fingered hands, the same purple and white—while Caterpie and Metapod look much more like this moth. Hence the idea that the two evolutionary lines were crossed during the development of Red and Green. The Japanese name, Morphon, with its reference to Morpho butterflies, fuels the suspicion.

Nobody at Game Freak has ever confirmed it, and some people explain it without a conspiracy: in the first generation, designs were recycled, and inconsistencies between stages of the same line are the rule rather than the exception. The theory is entertaining, and it still has no proof.

What changed and what did not

It has had the Bug and Poison types since 1996 without a single change, just like its 450 base stat total. What did change was the internal distribution: in the first generation there was a single Special stat of 90, and when the second generation split it in two, this moth ended up with 90 Special Attack and 75 Special Defense. It came out better than others—keeping the higher number on the offensive side—although the reduced Special Defense took away some of the staying power it had in Kanto.

Abilities came later. Shield Dust, which cancels the secondary effects of attacks it receives, is defensive and fairly dull. Tinted Lens was added in the fourth generation and is the one that truly changes what it can do, turning a Bug-type attack full of resistances into one that hits almost everything equally. Wonder Skin, its Hidden Ability, arrived later and points in the opposite direction: surviving instead of hitting.

Who it is compared with

The obvious comparison is Volcarona, the other moth with Quiver Dance, which wins out in power and durability. Against it, Venomoth's only unique advantages are Tinted Lens and access to Sleep Powder and Baton Pass—in other words, a plan built around putting the opponent to sleep, raising three stats and passing the boosts to something else. Against Butterfree, which also dances and also puts things to sleep, the advantage is 90 Speed against 70 and a secondary typing that does not make it vulnerable to the same things.

In a normal playthrough, the right time to use it is the middle stretch: you either obtain one already evolved in the wild or level up a Venonat caught early, it learns Bug Buzz at 25 and Psychic at 55, and with Poison Powder at 13 and Stun Spore at 23, it has status control from very early on. In the anime, it has been used by Tracey and Goh, but in neither case as a central team member.