Joltik's size compared to a Beartic — Joltik is next to Beartic's underarm.
Joltik is a tiny arachnid Pokémon. It has four legs tipped with blue, conical feet. Its ovoid body is completely covered in yellow fur, with notable tufts sticking out on each side of its face, just over each eye, and its lower back. Joltik has four blue eyes. The two larger eyes are set relatively far apart on its face, containing black pupils. The two smaller simple eyes are situated between the first pair, slightly higher up on its face. Joltik's mandibles point downward and reside at the bottom of its face, where they closely resemble tufts of hair.
At 4 inches (0.1 meters) tall, Joltik is one of the shortest Pokémon in existence. In fact, it is too small to generate its own electricity, so it attaches itself to larger Pokémon and feeds off their static electricity. More than often it prefers sticking on Yamper's hindquarters. It will also make its way into houses and feed off electricity in electrical sockets. All of the energy it absorbs it stores in an electric pouch on its body. As seen in the anime, Joltik is not especially aggressive, but will defend itself if bothered. It has been demonstrated that if Joltik is unable to find a source of energy, it will be unable to move and in serious danger.
Joltik debuted in Oshawott's Lost Scalchop!, where it was accidentally mistaken as Ash's Oshawott's missing scalchop. When Oshawott put it on his stomach, the angry Joltik started to shock Oshawott until it was taken off.
Did you notice the Joltik clinging to the other Pokémon in the cave? They can’t produce a charge on their own, so they absorb the static electricity from others.
In Pokémon GO, Joltik could be obtained by completing the time-limited Special Research, Season of Legends.
Joltik was designed by Saya Tsuruta.[citation needed]
Origin
Joltik's name, appearance, and its Pokédex entries stating that it latches onto larger Pokémon to drain their static electricity, all suggest that it may be based on a tick. It may also be based on a jumping spider or, like its evolved form, a tarantula.
Name origin
Joltik may be a combination of jolt and tick (a parasitic arachnid).
Bachuru may be a combination of バチバチ bachibachi (onomatopoeia for electric crackling) and タランチュラ taranchura (tarantula). It may also involve bug and 虫 chū (bug).
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.