We stopped alongside a road to collect insects from a small stream during one of my aquatic entomology classes and came across hundreds, maybe thousands, of these beetles:
Lots of beetles!
Aren’t they beautiful?! According to the lovely, fabulous, wonderful people at bugguide.net (did I’m mention that they’re fantastic?), the stripey beetles are Paranaemia vittigera, a member of the family Coccinellidae. Striped ladybugs! Super cool beetles, especially in such huge numbers.
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The Dragonfly Woman 
They’re gorgeous! They look like sunflower seeds.
I thought those ladybugs were beans.
Ha ha! I could see that, but nope. They’re ladybugs. Much less tasty than beans for sure.