It is the larval stage of one of the zillions of beetles. I'm THINKING that it might be one of the many tortoise beetle species, which often have the forked appendages at the rear. They use them, in later stages of development, to hold their shed skins.

Tortoise beetles can be found on many different kinds of plants, depending upon the species. If you could see any signs of adult beetles hanging around, that would be helpful. Of course, these larvae, whatever kind they are, hatched from eggs somewhere on the plant. Knowing what the eggs look like can be helpful in identifying your critter.

OK, that's my 'guess'. Hopefully, others will chime in.

Send a picture to BugGuide.net. I bet they will help. It's always best to have a good ID of what you're dealing with.