JohnStrickland

It appears to be a beetle of some kind. I will look into it.

Cool color scheme on that one. I thought it was a really big deer fly.

These are very neat spiders. They burrow into the dirt, and they make a finger like web in the soil with a hinged top on it. They lay out trip wires of web around the entrance to be alerted when prey approaches. I was treasure hunting once and was digging up a possible find, but I dug up what looked to be the finger of a leather glove. One end of it seemed to open, and I almost had a heart attack when I saw the spider inside. The one in your picture is a male. The trapdoor spider I caught was female, and she was around 2" long. Great find. These spiders probably have the largest fangs of the Arachnid family in the USA.

You are so lucky to have seen this. That is a great picture as well. What camera gear did you use?

If you like insects, then these are great for a framed display. Mainly because they look impressive. Nice specimen! I found one a week ago, but I think it had been hit by a car. It was a male like yours, but most of the horn was missing. Also, there was a visible crack in the pronotum. Great find though!

Be careful they are venomous! They can inflict a nasty and painful bite. Their front two legs are modified into fang like appendages.

Ido not believe that to be a velvet ant or cow ant. Even if it was a young ant the proportions would be different. Mutillidae do not have red hair on their legs.

That is a piece of feces the beetle is rolling around. Dung beetles are pretty much the only member of Coleoptera to do so.

The ears give it away. They are way to big to be a whitetail deer. Definitely a mulie!

Look up damselflies