Several people have asked to be informed of the answer so I am posting this.

Gene Scarpulla asked this question of me:  "Are you certain that the insects 
are Lepidoptera and not Hemiptera?"

To answer his question, I first had to answer "Hemiptera???"
    "Hemipterans are hemimetabolous, meaning that they do not undergo 
metamorphosis between a larval phase and an adult phase. Instead, their 
young are called nymphs, and resemble the adults to a large degree, the 
final transformation involving little more than the development of 
functional wings (if they are present at all) and functioning sexual organs, 
with no intervening pupal stage as in holometabolous insects."

I went out with my magnifying glass (my binoculars do not focus THAT close) 
and checked them out.  My untrained eye says they are all caterpillars and 
not nymphs.

Wendy Olsson suggested a Milkweed Tussock Moth and gave me this Wiki 
website:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkweed_tussock_moth.  The photo 
there of the "Early Instar" appears to be what I am seeing.

I checked the Princeton field Guide "Caterpillars of Eastern Northern 
America" (BTW - the best caterpillar guide I have seen) and the Milkweed 
Tussock Moth appears to be the culprit.  These caterpillars prefer the older 
milkweed leaves while the Monarch caterpillars prefer the newer leaves. 
They lay "rafts of eggs."

Therefore,  Wendy appears to have been first in providing a correct answer 
and she wins the prize.  Congratulations Wendy!  Thank you!  Lance Biechele 
provided the second correct answer.  His email pooped in just before I hit 
send on this email.  He does not win the prize, but many thanks to Lance.

Jim Wilson
Queenstown