Story of my life. Every time I see videos of giant stag or rhino beetles from other countries that I can't have, I'm always like "WHY???". Same goes for certain giant moths and phasmids (although I at lease understand with them, because phasmids can genuinely be environmental pests). So far all my beetles are still larvae or pupa, but I've got eastern hercules, harlequin, and glorious scarabs. If you're interested in things besides beetles, you could try millipedes, roaches, or moths. I have various species of each and would recommend them. I love my little collection of millipedes, and they're simple to care for. Hissers are pretty good pet roaches, and they come in a wide variety of colors. As for moths, I love those in the saturniidae family. I don't know off the top of my head which ones don't require permits in TX, but I've heard that receiving permits for native saturniids aren't to difficult to get. I've personally never applied for a permit however, as I don't need one in my area of the US for most species. They are, however, the biggest eaters of all inverts I've dealt with. My group of a dozen cecropia caterpillars went through a branch of leaves a day in their 5th instar. But they're beautiful as caterpillars and moths. And while I have no experience with them, but there's also some native centipedes that get pretty big. That's all I can really think of at the moment.
You can try goliath beetles, very legal know. There are native phasmids that grow as big as Australian spiny leaf insects, thats megaphasma (native to the USA). There are also dyanstes grantii and lucanus elaphus, as well as three species of native megasoma. Giant mantises exist, cat mantises grow to 7 inches. I have a pair of giant african millipedes, they grow up to like 12 inches, and rhino roaches grow pretty huge. Another thing you can consider are native katydids/grasshoppers.
Goliath beetles are legal in the US now????
Yup, there was a thread on it. Only goliathus goliathus is legal along with two smaller species in the genus goliath.
Time to go find that thread!
Pretty much all rhino and stag beetles only live months as adults, which sucks since it takes considerably longer than that to rear the larvae...
You definitely don't need a permit to keep native saturniids of any kind. IMO that would be pretty absurd, especially since many breeders release their moths which only helps dwindling moth populations.
Megaphasma is pretty big, but still dwarfed by Extatosoma tiaratum.
The breeder I buy from won't sell her moth stock to people of certain states without a proper permit, so I was lead to believe that they do. From what it says on her website, it sounds like you need permits for species that aren't native in your state. I could be wrong, but that's just the impression I've been under.
Here is a site to buy moths from, I have ordered from here before and they are great:http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/indexos.htm
That is except the Australian rainbow stags which can live for almost 18 months. Shame they're not for sale very often in AmericaPretty much all rhino and stag beetles only live months as adults, which sucks since it takes considerably longer than that to rear the larvae...
I'd suggest some sort of large roach, maybe Archimandrita tesselata or Blaberus giganteus? Of course, you could always go for the pricey Macropanesthia rhinoceros as well...
Oh, wow, had no idea they could live quite that long, thought they had rather short lifespans like most other stags. Huh, you learn something new everyday!