The arachnid later died, with Shahab pondering if it had hitchhiked in luggage from warmer climates to “a much chillier Auckland”.
MPI manager biosecurity surveillance, Nick Ward, told the Herald a Biosecurity New Zealand surveillance team member collected the sample.
It would be taken to their lab for formal identification by entomologists.
He said MPI thanked the person who notified them of the critter.
“We understand the person who notified us returned to New Zealand last month from a country that has scorpions,” Ward said.
He said scorpions occasionally enter New Zealand as “hitch-hiker pests” and are considered a low biosecurity risk.
“Most scorpion species have very specific habitat and climate requirements, often consistently warm, dry environments, which means they can’t easily survive in cooler, wetter climates.
“Scorpions are solitary, not colonial like ants or termites, meaning they usually arrive as individuals,” Ward said.
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