Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma mentioned on the latest edition of Iwata Asks that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword originally featured an item called Rocket Fists which eventually turned into the beetle item.

“At first, it was a boomerang. We thought it might fun if you could tilt the Wii Remote Plus so it flew however you wanted and tried out some things, but then we started talking about how that simply wasn’t much like a boomerang.”

“And it had a camera. We wanted to think of an item that would fit better with that feature and came up with rocket fists.

“At that time, it could also grab things, so we thought it would be cool if something like a hand were flying around.”

“In the end, it turned into a beetle. The way it looks like it flies out from your arm is leftover from the rocket fist.”