Black & Grey Mottled Jewel Beetle on Oregon Sunshine

Have you ever tried to identify an insect or plant before? It can be so frustrating. Take this lovely little beetle, for example. I spent a solid hour searching high and low, through my books, on the internet, searching Google Images, through Bug sites...and I can't figure out what this one is called!

It's no wonder that insect identification is so hard: there are over ONE MILLION identified insects and an estimated 30 MILLION that are yet to be identified! That's a lot of insects!

A special thank you to Robyn Waayers for helping to lead me on the right path to identifying this lovely little beetle!

If you would like a nice introduction to our planet's most successful animal, Wiki has a great page here: Wiki: Insect