We learned earlier this week about some of the new species Niantic was introducing for trainers into
Pokémon Go. With their latest release of Pokémon, however, it seems they made some final changes before allowing a certain bug and flying type to be available to the general public.
You probably guessed that the (un)lucky
Pokémon is Combee, and you're absolutely correct! Although the adorable hexagonal honeycomb triplets are available for capture in the game now, you'll notice that you can only encounter females.
Fans of the mainline
Pokémon series will see this as no problem knowing that the female version of Combee evolves into Vespiquen and the male meanwhile has absolutely no career path. However, in the games the male to female ratio when capturing Combee has always been 7 to 1, with the males being the more popular and frequent drones as a reflection of bees in real life.
There could be a couple of reasons behind the males' removal. It's possible that Niantic decided to remove the males so it would be easier for people to get Vespiquen right away, with plans to introduce the males down the line making her more rare. Another potential reason is that having a male Combee with nothing to evolve to might have been too buggy for the system, but there are other Pokémon such as Kirlia with gender-specific evolutions and both of their genders have been left in.
What's most exciting to think about would be that Niantic could be delaying the release of male Combees and waiting for - say - a male evolution to be introduced in Generation VIII? While it may not be the most likely scenario, fans of the series have wondered why there wasn't a male form for years, and this may finally be their answer.
The most likely case is that the males were just too difficult, but if they do happen to be re-introduced to Pokémon Go at the same ratio as they are in the mainline series, it will be a lot harder for players to evolve a Vespiquen in the future, so get out there and capture those ladies while you can!
Get ready for an all-new Pokémon experience. Pokémon Go opens a universe of Pokemon to find, catch, trade, and battle on your iPhone or Android device. With Pokémon Go, you'll discover Pokémon in a whole new world - your own!
Pokémon GO is currently available for Android and iOS devices.