Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: What is this beast on my tomatoes?, 1 by speckledpig

speckledpig wrote:
It's raining cats and dogs today here on the gulf coast, but I had to go out in the garden when I got home from work to have a look at everything.

I found this thing on one of my tomato plants. I assume it's some sort of caterpillar (is that in itself bad for tomatoes?), but what the heck are all those things hanging off of it?

I don't know jack about bugs/pests, so I'd appreciate a suggested course of action here.

Regards,
David