I just found out from a FB friend that it's a clavate tortoise beetle. I thought it was pretty neat looking.

I remember when I saw my first one. Thought it looked like a Volkswagen beetle, and came on here to ask what it was. Funny, they are seen more commonly now, but until a few years ago, had never seen one in a garden.

A tortoise beetle.
Not a friend in the veggie garden...I would hand remove into a bucket of soapy water.

Though they are a very cool bug to study of you are into that kind of thing.

I've had them for the past several seasons in my veggie garden, they don't try to hard to escape so they are quite easy to finger squish.

how do you know its a dude???

the big ones are usually momma..

lol

yahoo eggs.. and keep an eye out for the coming plague .. it alwasy starts with or two ..

Ken