Doubt they are caterpillars. I'd lean towards sawfly or beetle larva.

Thanks. I was hoping somebody here saw these things on their cosmos. All I can find In pests for them are aphids and some adult beetles. I had sawfly larvae on a hibiscus before, they were green. This plant is completely gone now. They are tiny ( about 4mm).

Lots of species of sawflies out there. I find larva of 3 to 6 species in my yard each year. Ones on hibiscus always show up. Used to get the big elm sawfly until my big elm died.

Whatever it was before being devoured, it was not a cosmos. They have very delicate, almost lacy foliage and no obvious hairs.

Oh boy. Guess I have to identify the plant first then. I have it in yellow and orange ( was in a seed mix) i don't have a picture that shows detail of flower and foliage. Will take a picture of the foliage tomorrow and go from there. This is all I got

I can't zoom into pictures but it looks like Zinnia to me

I meant the yellow flowers to the left. Looked a bit closer, they are lanceleaved coreopsis. Good thing there are plenty. The weird larvae moved on to the next one. Still didn't figure out what they are.

Oh sorry! I was blinded by the butterfly :)

Maybe a Leaf Beetle?

The eaten leaf in your first photos does look more like a zinnia than anything else. Neither the cosmos or the coreopsis would have fuzzy leaves.

Thank you so much! I think this is it. I saw a bunch of adult beetles around there today that looked like it. Of course still plenty of this larvae, too.

Happy to report I am not seeing any evidence of these critters anymore. And they did hardly make a dent in the plants.

Good for you! Its stressful to get things like them that eat up your plants.