Mass of caterpillars

[Rev. Redmond Farrier]

I got home from work this morning and noticed that the leaves had been stripped from what I believe to be a pecan sapling by my porch that I had neglected to cut down. Upon inspection I discovered that all the remaining limbs with leaves had masses of caterpillars on them. Any ideas on just who these fellows are?

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[Rev. Redmond Farrier]

Here is an individual caterpillar that I cropped out of the previous photo before resizing for the forum.

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[mantisboy]

A prominent caterpillar in the genus Datana. Maybe one like this: bugguide.net/node/view/514247/bgimage