Watch out! I’m a bee!
I’m not kidding – look at my big stinger! I’m REALLY a bee!
I’m fuzzy and everything! Why don’t you believe me?!
Sorry, bee mimic.
Ladybug
Ladybug with no spots
Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
Possibly an aphid-farming ant?
Tiny golden beetle
I assume this is the larva of something, but I have no idea what. It was very graceful in the water.
We put up mist nets to catch birds, but sometimes other things show up in them…
I’m totally a bird. (He’s not even caught, he’s just landed on the net. You can see he is holding on with his feet.)
Giant antennae!
I really liked this guy.
Big hairy feet.
Tough Little Birds 
Could your cool black beetle be a whitespotted sawyer? http://northernwoodlands.ehclients.com/images/sized/images/articles/Whitespotted_Sawyer_-300×171.jpg
Another cool wasp mimic I just discovered: http://digg.com/video/cool-insect-looks-like-a-cross-between-a-praying-mantis-and-a-wasp
-TH
Ooh yes, that is definitely him! (The oregonensis subspecies, based on range.) Apparently the species is a wood-borer and enemy of the logging industry. (Not one of the bad invasive ones though – this a good native beetle.) You can even see the white spot in my second photo of him; I’d never noticed that before. And the super-long antennae indicate that he is, in fact, a “he.” How cool!
That second link is a very strange insect indeed. I’m not sure why it’s bothered to mimic a wasp, since it’s already a scary predator on its own…
Great pics … the larva … could it be a dragon-fly ?..
What is the name of the large bee in the top pictures?
Please tell me the name of the first insect at the top of the page? I saw one recently and identified it as a mimic which led me to finding this page but I have nothing to go on further.
Some folks more knowledgeable than I in entomology identified it as a lion beetle (Ulochaetes leoninus) on iNaturalist.