Hmmmmm. I'm not convinced that it's a beetle at all. What is its size?

By the way, whatever it is, that is the adult size. Immature beetles don't look anything like a beetle, but are grubs or other squishy larvae.

I'll keep thinking about it!

As I recall, it was about the length of a ladybug but narrower. I agree it may not be a beetle but I didn't know what else to call it. It's the only one I've seen.

Are you sure about the size scale? Ladybugs are about 1/4 inch long and your bug is 4 times longer than it is wide. That would make it only 1/16" wide by your scale. I would think a fully barked and branched plant stem would have a larger diameter.

Your insect has more characteristics of a true bug than a beetle, but both families can have many odd appearances. It would take hours to go through all the bugguide images, even eliminating the subfamilies that I know this insect is not a part of.

You could try submitting it to bugguide.

No, I'm not sure about the scale. I took the photo a few weeks ago and have since forgotten exactly what it looked like. There are a lot of true bugs in that area and, you are right, this does have characteristics of a true bug. I will try submitting it to bug guide and see if I get a response. Thank you.

That led me in the right direction, larry_gene. I think it is a bark louse: Cerastipsocus venosus

Good job. I never would have guessed that. Not in the bug order hemiptera, but just one up on the bugguide taxonomy order list.

At least order Psocodea has far fewer images to check through.