A beetle, with a curious pattern on its pronotum that resembles an “M,” rests vertically on a plant stem.
This beetle is somewhat nondescript as far as beetles go: the orange and black are reminiscent of lightning bugs, but soldier beetles and others have the same type of coloration and I won’t be hazarding any guesses. The pattern on the pronotum, i.e. the shielded back of the thorax, resembles a Rorschach test inkblot. Not surprisingly I suppose, what I see most readily is my alphabetical avatar, the ‘M.’
BugPhoto.net 
Very strange pattern indeed. Are you able to recognize most of the insects by sight or do you need some identification keys ?
Well, I know the major groups pretty well, and I can fairly reliably pick out many family level taxons. To get more specific, I rely a lot on http://bugguide.net/ which is very helpful for identifying North American arthropods.
I do try to add a disclaimer when I’m not very sure, because I am only an amateur. I’m not actually very good with keys, I’ve discovered so I’ve been trying to be more conservative in my IDs (usually). Sometimes I like to tag with more specific names in the hopes that someone may confirm or correct my ID as well. I should probably just post to BugGuide.net, but my time online already seems to be going up when I want it to go down.
Great detail; wings almost look furry in spots. It’s only mid-morning and already I have a new word – pronotum.
Yes, this one has short hairs on the elytra; it looks patchy because the focus is uneven on the beetle’s backside, yet another example of the challenges of macro and depth of field. I was going more for the pronotum though, so I didn’t mind.
Lots of new peculiar and interesting words in the entomological world, which is a nice bonus, I’d say.