Beedrill mostly resembles a bipedal wasp; however, it only has four legs instead of six and lacks pigment pits. Beedrill's head is round with a slightly pointed mouth, with large, shiny red eyes and antennae in the shape of the number 7. Its legs are connected to its body by its thorax, and the first two are tipped with long, conical stingers. It stands on its other two legs, which are long, segmented and insect-like in shape. Beedrill has two pairs of rounded, veined wings, and another stinger on its striped abdomen.
They are highly territorial and normally live in colonies. Disturbing a swarm of Beedrill will cause the whole colony to attack. Beedrill is depicted as being very quick, so it's extremely difficult to avoid its attack after approaching its nest.
Like bees, it might be possible that it collects nectar. However, it is also described to use sharp, poisonous stings to defeat prey, and then take the victim back to its nest for food.
Ash captured a Beedrill in the Bug-Catching Contest, but he gave it to Casey because she is a huge fan of yellow and black Pokémon.
Other
Beedrill's first non-cameo appearance was in Challenge of the Samurai, where a swarm of them stole Ash's Metapod after evolving from Kakuna. The reason for this was to avenge Ash for failing to capture the Weedle (and startling it), which subsequently fled after Samurai arrived. The Beedrill reappeared in a flashback in Battle Aboard the St. Anne.
Beedrill has appeared in a lot of episodes, mostly having an antagonistic role to Ash and his friends who are usually attacked by a swarm of Beedrill and end up running away.
In the The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga, Ash caught a Beedrill in Kanto, and it was part of a swarm that he had disturbed when he caught a Mankey. He thought this Beedrill, along with Mankey, would help him to raise his Trainer level, but it couldn't.
In the Pokémon Adventures manga
A herd of angry Beedrill attacked Red because Saur accidentally hit their hive. Both the Trainer and his Pokémon were badly stung afterwards.
Later, Giovanni uses a Beedrill twice, first against Red at Viridian Gym, then against Lance on Cerise Island. Giovanni has stated that one of his most treasured and strongest team members is a Beedrill he caught in his childhood from Viridian Forest, which eventually helped Yellow who was also facing Lance. It is also one of the few members of his team that isn't a Ground-type.
Beedrill was in the first Super Smash Bros. game. When a Poké Ball was opened, one would come out and fly away. A few seconds later a whole swarm would fly by and attack everyone on the field except the user. Its role was taken over by Unown in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Game data
Pokédex entries
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation I.
Beedrill is extremely territorial. No one should ever approach its nest - this is for their own safety. If angered, they will attack in a furious swarm.
Beedrill's English name was originally going to be spelled with only one "L" instead of two.
Beedrill is the first Pokémon in National Pokédex order that can learn a signature move, in its case Twineedle. However, in Generation V, Beedrill lost this status, due to Escavalier also being able to learn it via level-up. This status now belongs to Meowth (with Pay Day)
In Generation II, its signature move Twineedle was the only way to poison Steel-type Pokémon. However, this was only possible because it was not a Poison-type attack. This bug was fixed in later generations.
In The Legend of Thunder!, when Marina's Jigglypuff uses Sing, it has no effect on Beedrill. Jimmy states that its wings beat so fast that they blocks all sound waves before they reach its ears. Despite this statement, Beedrill cannot have the Ability Soundproof.
Beedrill can be seen as a parallel to Butterfree. Both of their unevolved stages evolve into their respective first evolutionary stages at level 7, which then evolve into their respective final forms at level 10. They both also go through metamorphosis-like evolution and have same amount base stat total of 385.
Origin
Its design appears to simply be a stylized bee or wasp. However, it has a much closer resemblance to an Asian giant hornet. Its Shiny form may be based on the Agapostemon, as both are green in color.
Name origin
Beedrill is a combination of bee and drill (indicating its needle-like arms).
Spear refers to its stingers. In addition, the reverse of スピアー is アピス Apis (the genus for the honey bee), though it is unknown if this was intentional.