Thanks, Jeff!

Absolutley awesome, nice to see some one else my age on here. What books do you use in general to ID? I know there is a great 2 volume manual for the north east, but I can't remember the title. Look forward to seeing more of your pictures.

Here’s what the beetle looks like dead: Part of the vibrant color may be generated by the camera or just looks like in life.

There are several two volume books for beetles; the best is American Beetles, but they are not cheep.
The other I can think of is A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America which has a lot of errors.
Ground Beetles and Wrinkled Bark Beetles of South Carolina is good for some east coast states as well as Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of South Carolina by Phillip Harpootlian.
Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects is a really good entomology textbook.

For insects in general, Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity: By Stephen A. Marshall is one of the best (in my opinion). It has a key and notes on the number of species and info.
There are many other picture only guides but you have no way to confirm an id; there are no keys.

Arthur Evans and Eric Eaton have a guides to the insects of North America coming out soon (Eric's just was released). Both should have a lot of good info and photos. I know Eric's does; the only thing is; all of the insects have been isolated from the background. This may bother some, but I was not bothered by it.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

I had a Geotrupes I posted on here a little while back. I am leaning towards Geotrupes semiopacus, but I am not very good with Beetles so I was wondering what you thought.