It took serious effort to get this little guy, maybe half a centimeter, to do anything other than suction himself firmly to the inside of my car door. His shell (yeah, I do know it's not called a 'shell') had pattern, but the un-patterned sections were transparent. He had six legs as far as I could tell, itsy little antennae, and a very blase attitude toward being asked to leave. He was very pretty, though.
Any ideas?
This is a type of leaf beetle in the subfamily Cassidinae known as a tortoise beetle; it looks like Plagiometriona clavata, see http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/beetles/Plagiometriona_clavata.htm for images and more detailed information.
Cool. Thanks as ever, Flapdoodle. You learn something new every day. I've been seeing a much more diverse set of critters in my garden this year. None unwelcome thus far (aside from the unfortunately large population of Japanese Beetle grubs) so it's fascinating to find out what they all are.
