It's like invasion of the purple worm, defoliating my Cotinus


but I guess they don't start out purple--I found a couple tiny ones like this


There is also this beetle that likes to eat this tree

I'm having a hard time believing these larvae turn into this beetle because the big purple worms are so much bigger than the little beetles, but earlier this spring the tree had a lot of these beetles and they pretty much ate most of the new leaves...and they probably laid a bunch of eggs

any ideas what these are???

Thanks

Check out the last two images at bottom of page. http://utahpests.usu.edu/uppdl...

Given their lack of prolegs plus their size, numbers, presence of the beetles, and the extent of defoliation going on my guess is

Blepharida rhois
http://bugguide.net/node/view/...
which is larva #80 here


and dang if it doesn't look like I have San Jose Scale on the tree too. Poor tree! Things are not looking good for it

The beetle was the big clue in the ID. I did wonder about the "stuff" on the head of one in your photo and found out what it is.
From a research article here; ZooKeys 157: 95-130 (21 Dec 2011)doi: 10.3897/zookeys.157.1472

"In Blepharida, Diamphidia, Podontia, and Polyclada, larvae retain their feces directly on the dorsum. This coating acts as a deterrent to attacking enemies such as ants (Vencl and Morton 1998, 1999). The fecal coat may also serve to moderate body temperature or to reduce water loss but the functions have not been tested. Fecal retention and the dorsally-positioned anus represent complex characters supporting the monophyly of the Blepharida-group (Paterson 1943)"