Hi,
1. They are generated when needed based on the settings and / or needs of HikaShop.
For example, on the listing of products in the backend, HikaShop asks for a 50*50 thumbnail, but on a products listing on the frontend, it generate the thumbnails based on the size set in the settings of the menu item / module.
2. They are generated when needed. So you might not have all of them in a particular folder. For example, if you set a size 250*250 for a module which displays only the best sellers and you don't set such thumbnail size elsewhere, then only these three products will have their main image thumbnail in the 250x250 folder.