Butterfly Legality

[FunSizedZoo]

Question in regards to breeding butterflies. Now, I know for the most part it is illegal however, it seems to me there are a few exceptions to this rule. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Overall it seems there are about 9-10 species that can be moved in general. Almost all of them need permits except for about 4 species that do not require permits - cabbage white, painted lady, American lady, and red admiral. The next rule seems it’s legal to move native species intrastate. So, overall, is it legal to sell the “no permit required” butterflies in the states that they’re native, without a permit. For example, if 2/4 of those butterflies that are NPR (no permit required) are native to a California, then they can be sold in California legally with no permit. Did I explain that well? I’m still trying to figure out in my head as well lol.

The first link is where you can read up about the rules and the second link is the USDA charts. Please take a look at both of them and let me know if I’m interpreting this wrong. To me it seems cabbage white, painted lady, American lady, and red admiral butterflies have potential to be bred and sold. It seems local expos may be a legal way to sell them. 

https://www.internationalbutterflybreeders.org/which-butterflies-can-be-released-where/

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/permits/organism/downloads/decision_chart.pdf

 

[tgrimes]

You are correct.  In my experience interstate transport of butterflies not on the list is prohibited without permit but intrastate transport is allowed for any native species to that state.  These rules seem to change regularly.  In the past I could get zebra longwings from a breeder in Florida but now they have found that the subspecies in Texas is different from the one in Florida so the Department of Agriculture (DOA) will not allow transport of zebra longwings to Texas from Florida.  I once bred butterflies and had to go through a whole inspection process with the DOA of my containment facility before receiving any butterflies from out of state even if that species is native.  If it crosses state lines then the DOA gets involved.