I think the messy stuff is debris glued on top as camouflage, like some insects do. What do you think of that theory?

It hasn’t moved and I don’t think it changed either. Do you think it is dead? If so, should I check tomorrow to see if it peels off the leaf?

Turns out to be another tortoise beetle larva with fecal shield. I think Iris(or someone) posted another one last summer that was considerably different from the above images.

http://www.pbase.com/image/61066490

Wow. That’s really cool. I don’t think it was me. The only ones having something on top I recall were the slug looking caterpillars on my Sumac using the poop. Didn’t post the “junk bugs” here at all since they were easy enough to figure out. So were the camouflaged loopers. And of course there were the spiders with the fungus. Still seeing some of them around. Thank you again for all the help!

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/yellow-spiky-nymph-of-some-sort-dsvw-vd~5448435?n=2

^ your post of 20 August.

I might be loosing it. After reading your post last night, I had this little bell in my head the whole time. Actually the “fecal shield” did. Come Winter I really have to get to organizing my pictures. Problem is I don’t know a lot of them. But I even had a label on this one after you identified it. Wish I had your brain for insects. As an excuse there has been a lot of other stuff in there this week.