Help in identification

[Dan Staver]

My wife and I are involved in 4H and our club is doing an entomology
project.

We were trying to identify a caterpillar we just found feeding on
milkweed
(here in up-state NY, collected Sept 5, 2000).
It is hairy, predominately black with white and orange along the back.
Sorry we don't have a picture, but, it now has formed a dark brown fuzzy

cocoon.

Does anyone know the various lepidopterae which feed on milkweed
in the upstate NY area?

Also, are there any general aids, step by step, or algoithmic approaches

(railroad tracks - for those familiar with Pascal programming language
:-)
to identify more general caterpillars.

Dan and Sue Staver