Lakitu isn’t a Beetle. He’s a turtle. That much is obvious. The Spinys he tosses however, I believe qualify. So here we are on the last day of Beetle-Mania Week.
Here’s what Lakitu looked like in SMB. He flies above you throwing Spinys to cover the landscape. He can be taken out with a fireball but his high position on the screen makes getting near him a difficult proposition. His behavior didn’t change much in the change over to SMB3 but when he’s such a perfect character why would he want to?
Spiny takes the danger of Buzzy to a new level. Fire can get to him but stomping can’t. When Lakitu is filling your screen with these bugs, you can quickly run out of room to live.