Lakitufo

The Lakitufos are a sub-species of Lakitu that aided the Shroobs during their conquest of the Mushroom Kingdom. Their name comes from Lakitu and UFO. They were stationed in the Shroobs' Vim Factory. A Lakitufo resembles a Lakitu, except it has a red shell and green antennae coming out of its head. Instead of riding a cloud, however, a Lakitufo hangs onto the side of a UFO. Using this flying saucer, Lakitufos will beam down Spiny Shroopas, the Shroob versions of Spinies, to harass intruders in the Vim Factory.

In battle, Lakitufos are particularly dangerous. Not only can they launch Spiny Shroopa Eggs to attack, they can also beam down more Spiny Shroopas onto the battlefield, effectively increasing the enemy's forces. As such, Lakitufos should be the first target. If they are not destroyed, they will continue to spawn more and more poisonous Spiny Shroopas. A Lakitufo can also jump off of its UFO and perform an aerial spin attack, which is dodged by jumping. Since the babies cannot jump to avoid attacks when they are on their own in battle, Lakitufo - for reasons unknown - only use the aerial attack when the adult Mario Bros. are also present.

It is unknown if Lakitufos were brought to the planet by the Shroobs or if the mushroom invaders bio-engineered pre-existing Lakitus into Lakitufos. If they were brought from another planet, this would indicate that similar species have roots across the universe.