She estimated the critter must have survived four or more weeks since she had returned from a recent international trip.<\/p>\n
Scorpion confirmed <\/p>\n
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) sent an expert to collect a sample for testing. <\/p>\n
This afternoon, MPI Biosecurity New Zealand\u2019s manager for plant health incursion investigation, Dr Carolyn Bleach, revealed that entomologists examined the sample and confirmed it was a juvenile scorpion.<\/p>\n
Bleach said the creature was about 1.5cm and in \u201cvery poor condition\u201d, which indicated it would not have survived much longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it is still in the nymph stage, we need to carry out further testing to determine the exact species,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been no signs of any others and scorpions are typically lone hitchhikers.<\/p>\n
They could survive for many months while hidden away without food, Bleach said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person who found this specimen had travelled to Fiji and Bali earlier this year, and based on its characteristics, this juvenile is likely to be of Fijian origin,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Recent scorpion sightings <\/p>\n
The Ministry for Primary Industries said that since 2018, there had been 10 scorpion detections on our shores.<\/p>\n
Five were live and five were dead. The findings were made across New Zealand, mostly in Auckland and Wellington.<\/p>\n
The ministry said that most were linked to overseas travel or imported goods, including luggage, clothing, produce and freight.<\/p>\n
A live find in Auckland in February last year was associated with imported electronics.<\/p>\n
\u201cExotic scorpions are not established in New Zealand and finds are rare, isolated hitchhikers,\u201d the MPI said. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand has no native scorpion species. Native pseudoscorpions are often mistaken for true scorpions.\u201d<\/p>\n
A scorpion-like creature was found by travel writer Anna King Shahab. Photo \/ @lazysusan.nz<\/p>\n
MPI manager biosecurity surveillance Nick Ward earlier told the Herald the \u201chitchhiker pests\u201d were considered a low biosecurity risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost scorpion species have very specific habitat and climate requirements, often consistently warm, dry environments, which means they can\u2019t easily survive in cooler, wetter climates,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n
\u201cScorpions are solitary, not colonial like ants or termites, meaning they usually arrive as individuals.<\/p>\n
Behavioural ecologist Dr Leilani Walker told the Herald that after watching the video of the scorpion, \u201cit wasn\u2019t looking very happy\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Ministry for Primary Industries is investigating a scorpion like creature. Photo \/ @lazysusan.nz<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a climate that\u2019s very friendly to scorpions by and large. Most of them, in general, are associated with deserts,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n
It was not unusual for scorpions to catch a ride in someone\u2019s bag, as well as spiders, beetles and foreign plant material.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you throw enough things at the border, occasionally things will come through. Thankfully, in this case, it was a species that was never going to do particularly well here,\u201d Walker said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She estimated the critter must have survived four or more weeks since she had returned from a recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,11114,1558,13432,8344,13242,232355,2566,1866,1874,71,216965,82,10116,120,7055,130,3025,111,43,139,69,3236,173029,28702,544,131,5662,61,274,102],"class_list":["post-457226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-bathroom","tag-been","tag-biosecurity","tag-common","tag-confirms","tag-critter","tag-fiji","tag-find","tag-found","tag-from","tag-hitchhiking","tag-identified","tag-incidents","tag-likely","tag-linked","tag-more","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overseas","tag-scorpion","tag-similar","tag-some","tag-than","tag-think","tag-to","tag-travel","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}