I’m leaving this up so that it might help someone else. I just got my answer from Penn state extension. It is the nymph stage of the spotted lantern fly. Highly invasive and damaging to trees. It is treatable with pesticides and banding trees.

I love Rhizo_1’s idea of putting them in the bird bath. Caterpillars of all varieties are crucial for birds raising their young. It can take several thousand caterpillars to raise one hatchling to fledgling size. Baby birds can’t eat seeds or fruit, so depend entirely on insects, worms and caterpillars that their parents can bring back to them. Many birds raise two or three clutches of eggs each summer, so they are always in need of live food. Even if you don’t have space for a formal bird bath, you could set a bowl of water on the ground near the tomato plants. It’s even possible the birds might start finding the caterpillars on the tomato plants and save you having to remove them. Martha

Whitefly can turn into a major problem when they are allowed to multiply with no attempt at control. These insects hangout on the underside of the leaves as adults. That is also where they lay their eggs which hatch into the small, translucent disc shaped nymphs clearly visible on the leaves. Your control measures will require that you do something to get rid of all three stages: eggs, nymphs, and adults. Inside, use those sticky traps for adults, but change them occasionally. I never recommend them for the garden because they can catch too many other things like beneficial parasitoid wasps, butterflies, bees, tree frogs, spiders, and little lizards. I prefer a horticultural oil for the control of eggs and nymphs, but it must be applied directly to the underside of the leaves. Oils will smother the pests very effectively. Repeat the applications every week or so until you stop seeing the adults flitting around. Whiteflies are very mobile. Keep an eye on your other plants, too.

hahahaha i’m cracking up. wonderland is also known as eastern virginia. it is a picture of my hand in a mirror... it was the only way i could get a picture of one i didn’t squish right away. they haven’t been found near plants. the antennae has given me issues with identifying it. but the small white/yellowish horizontal stripe on its abdomen seems to be a good place to start. i’ve been looking at pictures! the only other thing that i could consider relevant is that it’s been rainy here for the last two weeks so not sure if he and his friends are looking for a dry spot