>>45126307>My guess was that they couldn't translate the design of Venomoth to sprite form wellAll the Sugimori watercolor artwork was made after the sprites(hence why they often look so different, because sugimori made changes to the designs). The sprites are the original designs made by the real creator of the pokemon(there were four pokemon designers in gen 1), it's the Sugimori artwork that's "off-model" because it's a revision while the sprite better reflects the creator's true vision.
>My guess (or hope) would be that Venomoth was also intended to originally be psychic type.If anything it was Venonat/Butterfree that was supposed to be psychic. It makes a lot more sense because of the special properties of their eyes. Read
>>45115466>Apart from Dream Eater, Venomoth can learn every damage-dealing psychic move in Gen 1.As a consequence of Venonat also being able to.
