Kabutomushi

Beetles are insects that have made a few appearances throughout the Mario series.

Beetles first appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "Princess, I Shrunk the Mario Brothers", where they had a rather minor role. A quartet of Beetles were shown to be living inside a drainpipe that a shrunken Mario and Luigi had taken refuge inside of. As the Beetles were hungry, they chased Mario and Luigi through the drainpipe in an attempt to eat them, although Mario and Luigi managed to escape. In this appearance, the four Beetles resembled The Beatles.

In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Booster collects beetles, but does not catch them himself, instead forcing his Snifits to make a hobby of capturing the beetles for him. By renting a Beetle Box for 150 coins and traveling to Booster Hill, home of the Beetle Race minigame, anyone can join in the fun and try to catch beetles along with the Snifits. Each Beetle can then by traded at Beetles Are Us for a predetermined amount of coins. Golden Beetles are worth one Frog Coin, male Beetles are worth fifty coins, and females only one coin.

A "Burping Beetle" was briefly mentioned by Grubba in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. When Mario was eavesdropping on Grubba, Mario made a noise. Suddenly alert, Grubba wondered who it could be. If Mario responded with a loud burp, Grubba relaxes, stating that the intruder was only a burping beetle. Assuming burping beetles are an actual species, it would seem that they live naturally in the Glitz Pit, as Grubba was not surprised to hear one and did not attempt to call any exterminator. However, Grubba is not that bright and could have simply meant that he had heard a beetle burp.

Earlier Mario enemies Buzzy Beetle and Battle Beetle could be considered beetles, but look vastly different than the generic Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars beetles.