Science and sensibility

I was met the other morning as I sped from my flat by this creature, hanging on to our front door.

As you can see I deftly removed it with the aid of an envelope (after a series of less deft manouveurs with my fat fingers threatened to do it a greater injury than had been infliced on it before I came along - check out his lone antenna) but I couldn't resist the urge to take a few pics before I let him go

I'm ashamed to admit when I first saw this guy I had it pegged as a beetle, a terrible mistake as it is infact what entomologists call a 'bug'. That is a member of the sub-order of sap sucking insects called Heteroptera (the name refers to the wings (ptera) which are a mixture (het) of membranous and hard portions.) This one appears to be from the family Acanthosomatida, though this particular species isn't included in the online checklist of New Zealand's Heteroptera. All New Zealand's native Acanthosomatidae are dependant on native plants that don't tend to exist in urban settings so it seems likely that this is an introduced species (though it's not the infamous green vegetale bug.) If someone wants to help with a more specific ID I'd be thankful.

What ever bug it is I finally let it go in our lawn, where it immediately ran for cover - presenting one last photo-op