identifying beetles

[doctoroe at my-deja.com]

I've seen quite a few beetles, but these are new ones on me:
Found a bunch of them scurrying around the side of
an oak tree..looks like maybe they had crawled out of the
ground at the tree's base. They are black and yellow...kinda
remind you of bumblebee colors, and about that size. Fairly
round, a little larger than a penny. The back of the lower thorax is
black..the prothorax is yellow with a kind of square black
design in the middle.  Any idea what these are?  I collected a few
just in case, they are something the bug experts need to
look at.Location is central North Carolina.
Thanks  NC



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