Unusual Bug with Grasshopper-like Legs: A Beetle Expert's Perspective

[Psi 5]

It was a small beetle like a Ladybug but it had back legs like a grasshopper and it jumped like one too. Any bug experts out there know of a hopping beetle?

 

[Ouabache]

Perhaps you saw a http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/bimg180.html . If you disturb them, they will jump.
If you want to dig more, search using keywords such as: Coleoptera, jump, hop, & beetle
There are variations in flea beetles markings Here are a few examples: image1, http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/images/cain2504.jpg , http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/okwild/misc/images/fleabeet.jpg and http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/b-txt/bimg180.html

Sidenote: Charles Darwin had a lifelong passion, collecting beetles. Coleptera is the largest http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/compendium/coleop~1.html of all the insects, with more than 300,000 worldwide.

 

[JamesU]

I want to ask something about a bug I saw once. It's body looked like a red square, maybe 5mm in length. On each diagonal, a long leg stuck out. It looked like a spider, but with 4 legs..does anyone know about something like this?

 

[Ouabache]

I want to ask something about a bug I saw once. It's body looked like a red square, maybe 5mm in length. On each diagonal, a long leg stuck out. It looked like a spider, but with 4 legs..does anyone know about something like this?

Never saw one like that. All insects I have heard of have 6 legs and spiders 8. Perhaps you can take a picture next time, you may have discovered a new taxonomic category.
Assasin bugs http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/citybugs/ask/truebugsquestions.htm bugs, some do have red markings.