Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: What is this thing? (Houston area bug), 1 by digigirl

digigirl wrote:
I'm new to Texas (relatively), new to gardening and therefore, really new to bugs. What the heck is this thing? I never saw anything like this in CA, but of course I wasn't looking then. It's on my Clematis plant, which is still a baby and doesn't have any flowers yet. I don't see any damage yet, but this bug looks icky to me. This is the closest-up I can get with my camera. Any more zoom and it goes blurry. Anybody know what this is? Good or bad?