Goliathus - it has happened !!

Beetle-Experience

Beetle-Experience

Eudicella
Ok folks, after spending the past two years working on this, I just got off of the phone with the USDA/APHIS ...

Three of the five species of Goliathus now no longer require permits!! This is not one of those shady things you hear about where you are not sure if it is really true or legal. NO PERMITS to own or ship between states: Goliathus goliatus, Goliathus cacicus and Goliathus regius

It's not 100% the list that I was hoping for, G.c. and G.r. are VERY hard to find, but at least for now we have something huge and exotic to work with - and hopefully we will be allowed the other two in the future.

Why? This change came about for two main reasons: the larvae will starve if not given an all-protien diet -and- the adults do not eat plants at any time, They feed on tree sap but only on sap runs that were created by other creatures and can not start a sap run themselves.

He said: for now, until everyone catches up to the idea, you should submit for a PPQ permit and you will be sent an official letter giving you clearance. I received an early version of this letter a while ago and already have some breeding.

I have been working with beetles for over 17 years, and never thought we would see this day. This is huge for our hobby!

If anyone has any questions, let me know.

Steven Barney

BeetleSource.com

Beetle-Experience.com

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You will still need an import permit to import directly from overseas, and the individual states can still cause us trouble, but as far as the APHIS is concerned we can breed, sell and ship as much as we want!

This finally went through after two years of me calling, emailing and sending articles about rearing and life cycles...

 
Hahahah!!! That's great!!!
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Might have to get me some of these one day...

 
While it would seem like this is a move in the right direction for this hobby, some other disturbing laws are supposedly going to be passed, have you heard about the new CA collecting laws?

 
This is incredible news and I applaud all of your efforts! Looks like it's time to start shopping around for some larvae.

Has there been any headway made on any of the exotic dynastids, or do they pose to many perceived threats?

Either way, this is probably the biggest and best news the US beetle breeding scene has ever gotten!

 
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Hi Titanus,

Well, I am hoping this might start a chain reaction.. when they see that we all do ok with Goliathus we can hopefully more on to other things.

If I had to guess (and what I am working toward now) is to first get the remaining two species of Goliathus off of permits, then, anything related to Goliathus that has very similar life and breeding habits. Then... anything not related to Goliathus that has the same habits.

What they did say, and this was just in passing and may not ever happen, was that they might look at some of the large Lucanids next. If THIS goes through it might open the door for a LOT of things. Again, this was just talking, but Dorcus was mentioned..

 
For the three Goliathus: adults, although more expensive, would be easiest to import. Any imports can not contain soil or substrate, so larvae would need to be shipped in moist paper or something.

Substrate would require a USDA soil permit and you would be back to permits and strict containment procedures.

 
I'm probably going to pick some of these up! Larvae are affordable but the adults on the other hand; I had Kingdom Of Beetle Taiwan quote me a crazy amount of money for them 2 years ago. Maybe they went down a bit!

 
Just was quoted 300 USD for Goliathus orientalis preissi, kind of steep but I'd do it! For the permit, does it apply for all Goliathus species? Also, how do I go about applying for the permit?

 
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Ratmosphere said:
Just was quoted 300 USD for Goliathus orientalis preissi, kind of steep but I'd do it! For the permit, does it apply for all Goliathus species? Also, how do I go about applying for the permit?
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Read the top post, you can only keep G.goliathus, G.cacicus, and G.regius legally in the US ATM, not G.orientalis yet. Hopefully orientalis will be legal to keep soon.

 
Grats to all of you in America, us in europe are rather liberal with these things and glad to see all you getting to expand the invert/Beetle hobby
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My only question for this post would be does this pose a problem for several beetle species in the wild, or any species, as more people go out and collect the more favorable and sought after specimens to sale and etc.? No doubt habitat destruction and several other issues are with us.

Insect rod

 
Habitat destruction is by far the worst problem for these beetles and many others. Actually, like many other animals, if we can keep them breeding in captivity it will help the species. Phalacrognathus muelleri would be a good case study for this.

The second problem for Goliathus is that, when they are collected in the wild currently, probably 98% or more of them are killed for the dry stock trade. If we as breeders can make a dent in that percentage and give them a chance to breed....

These shouldn't be thought of in the same way as Archispirostreptus gigas or Pandinus imperator. As adults they are not terrestrial animals and are very difficult to catch. You can't just walk around and pick them up off of the ground. I imagine many more escape than are caught.

 
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