I have some NOID yellow daylilies blooming and these bugs seems to enjoy them, any ideas if they are good or bad bugs.

Looks to me like tumbling flower beetles, but you'd have to match up the markings to see which one - I'm not sure if there are subtle differences between different ones that look close and I can't see the markings clearly enough on yours:

https://www.google.ca/search?q...

Actually looking at them again I'm not sure - off to get bug book.......

Check out these - any chance of a closer image of one?

http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

I went back down and caught a dozen or so in a large mouth jar. I did not observe any tumbling motion to them, they fly quickly, and I did not see anything looking like a pin on the tail end. So I am thinking it must be something else. It looks to me like three maybe four small yellow dots on each side as far as marking go.

These are very small, maybe a 1/4 inch. Maybe when they die and don't fly around so much I can get a close up.

I'm thinking they look more like the Buprestid beetles in the second link I gave above - I just went through a general insect book and there was nothing closer. I'll go through the beetle book now. If you have them in a jar and don't mind doing it, put them in the fridge (or freezer) for a while. (They're less likely "wake up" from the latter unless you want to keep them alive). That way you immobilize them and can get a close-up if your camera is capable.

They are not in the fridge cooling.

Great! They tend to be much more cooperative that way. If you take too long with the photo op they make wake up though. I've just been through the beetle book and didn't find anything closer. The Buprestids can be as small as 5mm. Do any of these look like it?

http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

Seedfork said:I have some NOID yellow daylilies blooming and these bugs seems to enjoy them, any ideas if they are good or bad bugs.

If they are what has ragged the edges of that bloom, then they aren't very good for a daylily bloom at minimum. Sure looks like Acmaeodera alicia from Sue's link to me. What I found on a quick search of the net indicates they eat wood, though. Not a lot of info showed up on the sites I viewed. There's a little beetle in these parts that looks similar, but I can't remember if it has the same markings. It's very quick, so is hard to catch. It does a 'flipping' movement that gets it out of reach rapidly. I haven't noticed them flying away, but the quick movement gets them out of sight instantly so they could. It may not be the same anyway.

edit: Maybe @JRsbugs could help with the id?

According to my beetle book there are 150 species of Acmaeodera in North America, but not a lot of them occur in the east. One small one that does occur in Alabama as far as I can find is A. tubulus, but I'm not sure it's a match. A bigger picture and help from Janet will certainly be a plus.

I tried this afternoon to get a better photo, but so far no go. The darn this is so small it is hard to get a better photo of it. I will look though the camera manual and see if there is any way to get it to focus any closer.

Just from my untrained eye and looking at the markings this looks more like it than anything I see.
Paratyndaris (Paratyndaris) acaciae Knull - Paratyndaris acaciaeParatyndaris (Paratyndaris) acaciae Knull -
Paratyndaris chamaeleonis .

They do look close. I found a description of P. acaciae which said it is about 8mm in length, I was thinking yours was a bit smaller? That was a plus with the Acmaeodera, they can be smaller than that. Still looking for the size of P. chamaeleonis. Some of the Buprestidae can be much bigger, so size can be useful for elimination of some that look close, as would be the geographical areas in which they are usually found. In looking for sizes I found this page which might be useful for pictures:

http://texasento.net/TXBuprest...

Do you have a magnifying glass? Sometimes I've managed to get a better picture by pointing the camera lens through one. It looks like hopefully we're in the right family anyway, not sure if we can identify it to species. If anyone here can it would be Janet. Either way it is not a recognized pest of daylilies. I'd have to find the reference again but I think these beetles most likely only have one generation a year so the problem likely won't be ongoing through the season.