Can someone ID this? I have found many of them in my garden. They are just a bit over one inch long. Would you want them in your garden?

Toni, I don't know what insect it is but before you get rid of it you might want to post the photo on this thread: The thread "April 2015 Butterflies, Moths & Larva" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum Someone there might recognize it and be able to give an exact ID. It'd be a shame to get rid of it if it happens to be larva or cocoon for a good insect!

Thank you Lin. I reposted it. Thank you for putting a link that I could access the right thread quickly as I am out in the garden on my phone and couldn't find that thread originally. I would never intentionally hurt anything in my garden, usually not even the pests

Toni, you are welcome. I figured one of the really knowledgeable folks over there will probably recognize it right away and be able to tell you if it's good or bad.

LOL, I've been known to squish first and ask questions later when it comes to bugs. I know I probably killed my share of good bugs over the years.

I'm looking forward to seeing an answer to this as well -- I know I've seen those in my garden!

I think they're Hawk Moth pupa. Something in the Sphingidae.

Good eye Celia, it may very well be a variety of Sphinx Moth. Here are a few found in Oregon, scroll down these pages for image comparisons:

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.c...

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.c...

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.c...

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.c...

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.c...

If you look at Lin's link
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.c...
the pupa appears to have a kind of curly "tail". Does the suspect in question have that? I can't tell from the image.

This one on Bugguide is a more obvious "tail":
http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

We have two threads going for this now, and I suggested on the other one that it might be a cutworm pupa, see:
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agricultu...

Only way to be sure what it is is to keep one in a clear jar with a perforated lid and see what emerges from the case. Much easier to ID such critters as adults.

@sooby no it doesn't have a curly tail.
I am afraid I will kill it if I put it in a jar to hatch.... Maybe I will get brave...

If you just scoop it up with a bit of soil it should be fine, don't even need to touch it If it is a cutworm you actually might want to kill it

Ahhh -- thanks for this info! I believe that the ones I've seen are likely from tomato hornworms, which I only rather recently learned become "hummingbird moths." I'm a bit conflicted on this one, because I like the moths, the worms not so much... maybe I need to plant a couple of tomatoes specifically for the hornworms and move all the cats to those plants

Oh my gosh! I didn't know hummingbird moths were tomato horn worms! Why have I seen hummingbird moths in the mountains where no tomatoes ever lived...? I definitely couldn't kill those - they are awesome

I'm no expert ( still getting over the embarrassment of not knowing insect frass when I saw...and planted it ) but would it help us to know what type of plants grow near where this was found? and in what type of soil?

Please consider putting it in a jar as was recommended. We would all like to see what emerges.

Yes, please! Put it in a jar so we know for sure.

Toni said:Oh my gosh! I didn't know hummingbird moths were tomato horn worms! Why have I seen hummingbird moths in the mountains where no tomatoes ever lived...? I definitely couldn't kill those - they are awesome

Toni, I just learned this last year -- I had some damage on my tomato plants and in the process of trying to figure out what was doing it, having never seen the hornworms here before, found that it was not only hornworms on the plants but also that the hummer moths I had been seeing in my flowers (also unusual, I had seen them but not here at home) came from those caterpillars! Kind of like the year I discovered that what I considered to be nasty-looking, hairy caterpillars infesting my borage and petunias were actually Painted Lady butterfly babies

http://texasbutterflyranch.com...

(There are quite a few different sphinx moths, so not just from the tomato hornworm...)

If you are finding them in the veggie patch... I think that tomato horn worm (manducca sexta) is likely.
They're not the gorgeous hummingbird moth...
But they are still very cool.
I took some pictures last year...
http://gardens-in-the-sand.blo...

When I get caterpillars on the tomatoes, I might move them to the datura... Or to the black nightshade... They will often show up on the alternate host plants without my help.

From these pictures of tomato hornworm pupa, unfortunately doesn't match:

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/crea...

@sooby That link was very interesting.

Toni, I thought you might find this link useful to you. Celia is right, it is probably one of the "hawkmoth" pupas. This link catalogs all the moths found in the PNW and has great pictures.

http://pnwmoths.biol.wwu.edu/

Toni said:@sooby That link was very interesting.

Glad it was useful. It does rule out hornworms since your pupa doesn't have the "jug handle" proboscis. Apparently there are some Sphingidae that don't have this so can't rule out the family altogether I guess. I also don't think we can rule out cutworm/armyworm (Noctuidae) relatives just yet either. Did you happen to keep the pupa in captivity? If not I guess we'll never know.........