I'm tagging everyone so all can read it.
@Dragozap @ruislerez @Bug boy3092 @Ratmosphere
The answer to your question is
NO. Even if you can legally own, rear, trade/sell/purchase, and transport between states within the U.S., It is NOT LEGAL to bringing in from oversea (including Canada and Mexico, which is connected by land). The REAL problem of bringing in the organism from outside the country is not actually
the organism you are bringing in. The real, and the utmost problem is actually the pest (could be another insect, bacteria, fungus, etc.) which could potentially cause a harm to native plants and animals. This can be a huge problem, if there is any that actually does cause the issues. The next question is the organism you bringing in. That also can cause a potential harm to native plants and animals.
It does not matter. Even if you are bringing in
Lucanus elaphus,
L. capreolus,
L. placidus,
L. mazama,
Dynastes grantii,
D. tityus,
Megasoma punctulatum, etc., it is illegal, BECAUSE you are bringing them in from outside of the country.
@The Mantis Menagerie has pointed out a VERY GOOD thing here:
Technically, it is even illegal to transport native Dynastinae and Lucanidae across state lines.
As far as I know, this is half right, and half wrong. Dynastes grantii used to be uncommon, and was designated as protected species once in a while ago, and was unable to legally transport out of the state Arizona. (This is still the case for specimens collected from Utah. D. grantii is still protected in Utah.) The reason of transporting organisms across the states is more likely because U.S. has many different ecosystems from dessert to rain-forest. It would NOT SAFE to bringing in any alien (outsider) to a new habitat. The state California can freely import dynastine scarab beetles and lucanid beetles from other U.S. states as long as it is not legally protected by law. There are some other U.S. states like that, and it all depends on state and status of species itself.
Back to the original discussion:
You all may wonder what the fxxk does USDA and FWS has anything to do with bringing in organisms from outside the country. They handle this matter because they are the ones taking good care of natural fauna of the US, and
especially "the plants."
Do not ever try to smuggle. The U.S. Customs and the FWS agents in the US airports are fucked up. They are retarded assholes who has no knowledge of insects, willing to confiscate whatever they like even if you
legally transporting loaned museum collections.
Here is what happened to me the other day. I brought 14 dead, dried, some packaged and some pinned specimens from a short trip to South Korea in March 2017. They were all legally collected, not protected, very common, and their status were all NE for Not Evaluated per IUCN (NE is there for those so common, that you don't even have to research whether they are decreasing or whatever). As soon as USFWS agent looked at a male,
Trypoxylus dichotomus, they confiscated, and told me this is one of those CITES. I immediately responded to them that this is not CITES, and is not protected, and also I told them I received it from national museum for a research (Yes, they really were from many different research institutes in Korea.) Guess what? They are NOT willing to hear me out, and just took it away. Oh well, It's not like
T. dichotomus is something that I need to risk my life. So whatever, I just gave it away, and received a package of pinned and papered collections from a colleague in South Korea. Ever since, I never personally carried anything with me. Because, I'm dead tired talking to idiots.
Try not to risk your rest of life. If you really want to rear something illegal, try get them within the U.S., to avoid stupid troubles, although I would not recommend anyone to do anything illegal. It is just NOT WORTH IT for your hobby life.
Hobby is for fun, guys... Have fun!
