Where is the emperor scorpion legal?

a person shall not import into the District, possess... any living member of the animal kingdom, including those born or raised in captivity, except the following

No invertebrate category exists in the permitted list.

How this rule works: A closed list and one of the shortest in the country. Subsection (j)(1) bars importing, possessing, displaying, selling, trading or giving as a household pet "any living member of the animal kingdom, including those born or raised in captivity", except seven categories: domestic dogs, domestic cats, domesticated rodents and rabbits, captive-bred common cage birds, non-venomous snakes and fish and turtles, ferrets, and racing pigeons. No lizard, no amphibian and no invertebrate fits any of them. Read from the D.C. Code rather than from a reproduction: the seven categories and their exact wording are what every cell in this jurisdiction turns on.

Any animal that is not on the lists of conditionally approved, restricted, or prohibited animals shall be prohibited until the board's review and determination for placement on one of these lists

No scorpion appears on any list. The only matches for the word are scorpion fishes on the prohibited list, which are unrelated.

How this rule works: The statute behind the lists. Subsection (c) is the default rule: anything not on the conditionally approved, restricted or prohibited list is prohibited until the board reviews it.

No person shall sell or give to another person, possess, harbor, keep, or yard wild or other animals identified in this section ... other than in: (i) a zoological park or aquarium ...; or (ii) a laboratory ...; or (iii) a veterinary hospital ...; or (iv) a temporary exhibit, performance or display that has been issued a permit by the Commissioner. ... For the purposes of this Code, a wild animal is deemed to be any animal which is naturally inclined to do harm and capable of inflicting harm upon human beings and all such animals are hereby prohibited ... Such animals shall also include: (i) any animals specified by the Commissioner in regulations ...; (ii) any native or exotic wildlife whose possession or sale is prohibited because they are designated as protected or endangered pursuant to any federal, state or local law, regulation, or rule; and (iii) any of the following animals:

The clause needs only one word for this animal: after the venomous spiders it says "scorpion", with no genus, no species and no venom threshold. Pandinus imperator is among the least dangerous scorpions kept as pets and is prohibited on the same word as a deathstalker. § 161.01(d) is worth knowing alongside the prohibition: a prohibited animal may be seized by any authorized city employee, the owner has three business days to request a hearing, and with the Department's written consent the animal may be removed to a jurisdiction where it is not prohibited. That last provision is the closest thing to relief in the article.

How this rule works: A city rule that is stricter than any state on this map, and it works in three layers. It opens with a standard rather than a list, deeming a wild animal to be "any animal which is naturally inclined to do harm and capable of inflicting harm upon human beings". It then adds, at (b)(ii), any wildlife protected or endangered under federal, STATE or local law, which imports New York State's protected wildlife scheme into the city wholesale. And it closes with 24 numbered clauses that work mostly by family: all cats other than Felis catus and their hybrids, all dogs other than Canis familiaris, all Mustelidae including the ferret by name, all squirrels, all marsupials, all large rodents, all Boidae, all Pythonidae, all Varanidae, all Iguanidae, all teiidae, all Chelydridae, all venomous spiders including the tarantula by name, and all turtles under four inches. § 161.01(c) is the short answer to what is left: gerbil, hamster, guinea pig, domesticated rabbit, and small birds such as parakeet, parrot, canary and finch.

Arachnida (Arachnids) ... Araneae (Spiders) ... Mesostigmata

The arachnid section runs to three tarantulas and one predatory mite. No scorpion appears in it, so the emperor scorpion is not unrestricted and needs a permit. Pandinus imperator is also on CITES Appendix II, though that is not what decides it here.

How this rule works: The list 12 M.R.S. § 12152(1-A) requires the department to maintain and 09-137 CMR ch. 7 § 7.06(1) describes: species needing no importation, exhibition, propagation, research or possession permit, which pet shops may also trade. Dated 11 August 2017 on every page, and this is the version IFW still serves. Three headings do most of the work: Reptilia, Serpentes and Testudines each carry "Captive Bred Origin Only", and an asterisk on an entry removes anything on the USFWS injurious or threatened and endangered lists, in CITES Appendix I, or on the IUCN Red List as Endangered, Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild.

Nothing in this Part shall prohibit any person from possession of exotic animals or native animals of the class Insecta unless the animals of that class appear on the list of prohibited insects

Same gap as the tarantula. Scorpions are arachnids, not insects.

How this rule works: One of the most species-specific schemes in the country. § 3.6 defines domestic animals, § 3.7 sets general prohibitions, § 3.9 governs permits, and § 3.17 is the long exempt list of animals that need no exotic animal possession permit. Anything not domestic, not native and not on the § 3.17 list needs a permit.

Invertebrate species listed as approved may be imported, possessed, sold, purchased, exchanged, transported, or released in Oregon without a permit from the Department. This applies only to stock collected within the continental United States. ... Emperor scorpion, Pandinus imperator (education, pet). ... Live invertebrates not on the list of approved invertebrates in any life stage may not be imported, possessed, sold, purchased, exchanged, transported, or released in the state unless a permit is first obtained from the Department.

Oregon runs two closed lists, and this animal is on the second one. ORS 496.004(19) defines wildlife as fish, shellfish, amphibians, reptiles, feral swine, wild birds and wild mammals, so a terrestrial arthropod is outside the Fish and Wildlife rules entirely; the Department of Agriculture picks it up instead under its plant pest authority. Named to the species and marked for pet use, in a scorpion section that runs to more than a dozen entries including the fat-tailed scorpions and the deathstalker. The condition is a real one and easy to miss: the clearance applies only to stock collected within the continental United States, so an animal imported from abroad needs a Department permit even though the species is approved. Nothing on this list is unregulated; an invertebrate absent from it may not be possessed at all without a permit. Oregon cities and counties may prohibit exotic animals by ordinance on top of state law, so check the municipality as well.

How this rule works: Oregon's second closed list, run by the Department of Agriculture and covering terrestrial invertebrates, which the Fish and Wildlife rules never reach. Subsection (3) bars possessing any live invertebrate not on the list without a Department permit, and subsection (1) limits the clearance to stock collected within the continental United States. The list is long and written to species with the intended use in brackets, and most pet-trade arachnids, myriapods and roaches are on it. It does not apply to marine or aquatic invertebrates.

The following species are exempt from Codes 09.02 (Possession Of Non-Native Wildlife In Captivity Restricted), 09.07 (Wildlife Breeder/Dealer Permit Required), and 09.10 (Wildlife Importation Permit Required)

Same open question as the tarantula: no invertebrate appears on the list in either direction.

How this rule works: Species exempt from Codes 09.02 (possession of non-native wildlife restricted), 09.07 (breeder/dealer permit) and 09.10 (importation permit), named individually with binomials. Read it out of the codebook rather than the compiled PDF AGFC posted at agfc.com in 2022, which is the version that circulates as "the Arkansas list" and is two revisions behind: it lacks the rosy boa and the whole Anoline Lizards entry with its Arkansas-native exception. The compiled PDF says so itself, that the codebook lists "take precedence".

No person may import into Idaho... possess or otherwise hold in captivity... any live wildlife, except those animals exempted by Idaho Code or these rules, without a corresponding... captive possession... license/permit from the Department.

Same gap as the tarantula. The venom test in the conventional pets definition is attached to reptiles and amphibians, so it says nothing either way about a scorpion, and no invertebrate category exists to fall into.

How this rule works: Section 010.06 defines conventional pets, which sit outside the wildlife permit regime. Unusually explicit: it names ferrets, hedgehogs and sugar gliders in the rule text.

"Nongame species" means any wildlife for which a legal hunting or trapping season has not been established in New Jersey or which has not been classified as an endangered species by statute or regulation of this State.

Same unresolved question as the tarantula, and worth noting that New Jersey does not treat venom as its own trigger the way it does for reptiles. 4.8(a) lists venomous lizards and venomous snakes by family and says nothing about venomous invertebrates, so the emperor scorpion is not potentially dangerous under the rule. It then falls into the same gap: 4.5 reaches "nongame species", which 4.1 and the enabling act define broadly enough to include an arachnid, while the possession statute at N.J.S.A. 23:4-63.3(j) does not reach arachnids at all and no Division list names one.

How this rule works: NJDEP's own courtesy copy of the whole of N.J.A.C. 7:25. Subchapter 4 starts at 7:25-4.1 and carries the definitions, the permit requirement at 4.2, the three species lists at 4.3, 4.4 and 4.8, the pet bar at 4.9(a)3 and 4.15(b), and the state endangered list at 4.13. The three list PDFs the Division hands out are extracts of this.

Any species of live non-domesticated animal not currently on the species importation list will be designated group IV until such time as another determination is made by the director.

The emperor scorpion is not on the Director's list, and neither is any other terrestrial invertebrate: the roughly 1,300 rows are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. Read literally the default clause would designate it group IV and bar it, since it is a live non-domesticated animal. Read in context that looks wrong, because the rule is titled importation of live non-domesticated animals, birds and fish, its scope speaks of wildlife species, and its machinery is veterinary inspection certificates and disease testing built for vertebrates. The regulation never uses the word invertebrate. Recorded unclear rather than banned, because the definition arguably reaches the animal and plainly was not written with it in mind.

How this rule works: The roughly 1,300 row table that 19.35.7 NMAC points at and that earlier research could not obtain. Every row gives a family, a scientific name, a common name and a roman numeral group. Group I is semi-domesticated and needs no importation permit. Group II is not known to be invasive or dangerous and needs a permit. Group III presents minimal or manageable concerns and needs a permit with specific provisions attached. Group IV is prohibited to the general public. The list is reached from the download page rather than a direct file URL, and the site needs a User-Agent header.