What are all these insects, and coming out this late in the year?
This "hatching" occurred on Wednesday morning November 8, 2023 in a floodplain area along Middle Fork Beargrass Creek in Louisville, KY.
Brightest orange ones were quite obvious, but there were many colorations evident.
These are true bugs in the family Rhopalidae; they appear to be eastern boxelder bugs, Boisea trivittata. The smaller reddish ones with black pads are nymphs; the bright orange ones such as in your last two images are adults that had just emerged from their last nymphal stage, and had yet to develop full adult coloration.
Aha! Excellent, thank you, Flapdoodle.
