Okay, this thing is big. Bigger than the top of my thumb. It’s some sort of beetle, thick-bodied and a shiny goldish color. It showed up in my house last night, and is very good at playing dead. Unfortunately, my cat chomped on it last after it decided it was safe to act alive again.
The internet appears not to have ever heard of anything remotely similar. Not in New Jersey, anyway. You’d think something that size would have a prominant place on the lists. (Unless it’s very lost or something). There can’t be that many big bugs here, can there? I think I would have seen them.
(Not that internet photos are always helpful even when they’re there. I had a lot of trouble identifying camel crickets that showed up in our basement because they were slightly less hunchbacked than the ones in the pictures).
Sounds like a shining leaf chafer of some kind; I think they are mostly more greenish than goldish but they can be various colors. Try image searching “shining leaf chafer” and see if you find your late acquaintance.
Note that “june bug” is used for many different beetle species, several of which I wouldn’t use the term for, such as those stripy ones in those images.
That said, I would use the term for the images in this link, which may be what the OP wants:
They can vary in color from light golden brown to nearly black. The pose on the back in that link is very common. They fly into things, land on their backs and have a difficult time righting themselves. A common obstacle for them is screens, which they fly into with an audible thump.
“June bugs” or “May beetles” are close relatives of the leaf chafers, and this is the time of year you’d be starting to see any of those species in NJ.
So it’s probably not some strange exotic you’ve got there, nor an early warning of an extraterrestrial insect invasion. (Sorry, just saw Men in Black 3 and have a heightened awareness of such possibilities.)
