Collecting spiders from the wild

[Jonathan6303]

So I’m driving down south to Florida for vacation. Down there are some amazing spiders part of the sphodros genus and Cyclocosmia genus. Is there any legal way I can collect them. If not I will just take pictures and maybe feed them some crickets.

 

[greeneyedelle]

My in-laws live in Florida and when debating whether or not to drive (from literally the opposite corner of the country lol) so I could do the same thing, my researching didn't produce much in terms of laws on collecting terrestrial invertebrates. I think the general consensus is that Florida doesn't really care about bugs, but here's a link to the list of endangered and threatened species in Florida state: https://www.fws.gov/southeast/florida/#
They defer to the Captive Wildlife Office for permits and such.

https://myfwc.com/license/captive-wildlife/ - "The Captive Wildlife Office regulates both native and nonnative mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. ‘Wildlife’ as referenced on this page only refers to mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. All other classes of animals (fish, insects, arachnids, invertebrates, etc.) are not regulated by the Captive Wildlife Office and possession of such animals is not authorized under any Captive Wildlife license or permit." When they say "not regulated" and "not authorized by" the Captive Wildlife Office, they imply that some other department is, but I can't figure out which department that could be. Sooooooo, do with that what you will!

Obviously someone here with far more amateur collecting experience than I could offer more insight.

Happy collecting!! And have an amazing vacation

 

[DreadMan]

Ive always seen this as an iffy subject. Inlegal? no. Immoral? maybe. by collecting, i am assuming you want to bring them with you. Considering you said you are driving, 99 percent of the time the law wont matter as the police wont search your car to find species being carried out. As for causing an invasive species, I wouldnt be too worried as up north from florida is a little too cold for those spiders. This also has a double standard of course. If you choose to let them go, they would most probably die from the cold, dry enviorment which isnt very moral. So yes, you could definetly pull off smuggling exotic spiders into other states but should you? probably not.

 

[Jonathan6303]

Ive always seen this as an iffy subject. Inlegal? no. Immoral? maybe. by collecting, i am assuming you want to bring them with you. Considering you said you are driving, 99 percent of the time the law wont matter as the police wont search your car to find species being carried out. As for causing an invasive species, I wouldnt be too worried as up north from florida is a little too cold for those spiders. This also has a double standard of course. If you choose to let them go, they would most probably die from the cold, dry enviorment which isnt very moral. So yes, you could definetly pull off smuggling exotic spiders into other states but should you? probably not.

You misunderstand my intentions. These genuses are very rare in the hobby. I’m not trying smuggle them. This is why I said a legal way.

My in-laws live in Florida and when debating whether or not to drive (from literally the opposite corner of the country lol) so I could do the same thing, my researching didn't produce much in terms of laws on collecting terrestrial invertebrates. I think the general consensus is that Florida doesn't really care about bugs, but here's a link to the list of endangered and threatened species in Florida state: https://www.fws.gov/southeast/florida/#
They defer to the Captive Wildlife Office for permits and such.

https://myfwc.com/license/captive-wildlife/ - "The Captive Wildlife Office regulates both native and nonnative mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. ‘Wildlife’ as referenced on this page only refers to mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. All other classes of animals (fish, insects, arachnids, invertebrates, etc.) are not regulated by the Captive Wildlife Office and possession of such animals is not authorized under any Captive Wildlife license or permit." When they say "not regulated" and "not authorized by" the Captive Wildlife Office, they imply that some other department is, but I can't figure out which department that could be. Sooooooo, do with that what you will!

Obviously someone here with far more amateur collecting experience than I could offer more insight.

Happy collecting!! And have an amazing vacation

Thank you so much.

 

[CRX]

I don't personally have a problem with collecting spiders from the wild, many of mine have been wild caught. But you say you want to find a Sphodros lol. All I can say
is good luck, I live in Kentucky where Sphodros also occurs, and in my 28 years of life I have never seen one in the wild. They live in very deep forest and their vertical webs are almost entirely concealed from the outside, you can't really see it.

 

[Nicole C G]

It’s not wrong to collect foreign invertebrates. I’m pretty sure a good amount of people on here have pets from non-native places. If you don’t release it, and if it’s not endangered (rare is fine, just not endangered), than it’s fine. I doubt the police will start knocking at your door. Most people don’t actually respect invertebrates as more than just pests, so saying you brought something home from another place will more likely make people confused than mad.

 

[Jonathan6303]

I don't personally have a problem with collecting spiders from the wild, many of mine have been wild caught. But you say you want to find a Sphodros lol. All I can say
is good luck, I live in Kentucky where Sphodros also occurs, and in my 28 years of life I have never seen one in the wild. They live in very deep forest and their vertical webs are almost entirely concealed from the outside, you can't really see it.

I have heard there extremely reclusive. Bugguide does seem to have some spotting of some females so I hope that helps.

 

[viper69]

Catch and return like fish for me

If it’s a non-native species- FL says take them all