I'm always envious of the species you find further north. This spring has been so strange, for all the rain you got, we're under a drought watch and lots of the plants seem a week or so behind schedule.

there are 50% more beetle species in New Jersey, although you have to get into some countryside to get the full volume. My beetle hunting philosophy (or part of it anyway) is, whatever might possibly be eaten by something is probably being eaten by several species of beetles. I look at/in everything I can think of: discarded banana peels, animal excrement, leaf litter, fallen branches, dry seedheads, slimy fungus, dripping sap, and I always carry a pocket loupe to examine minute moving specks and small plastic vial to put them in.