Each country has its own unique regulations for wildlife trading and collecting. If you are importing specimens into the United States, the US Fish & Wildlife Service may require to see a copy of a collecting permit from the country of origin. Also, if you travel to other countries to collect insects in the field you will want to know the wildlife policies of your host country.

InsectNet.com is in the process of researching the various collecting policies of each country. If you have any information please forward it to this web site so that your colleagues can benefit. Here is what I have found so far (thanks in part to the Bohart Museum of Entomology):

Obtaining Collecting Permits for:

• The Skeptical Moth - Collecting Permits Blog
  Maintained by Chris Grinter, an entomologist at the California Acadamy of Sciences in San Francisco. Read this first.
   
• Australia
  Collecting permits contacts for Australia Council of Heads of Australian Entomological Insect Collections' web site.
   
• Mexico
  For collecting regulations in Mexico, the CONABIO (Comision National para el Conocimiento de la Biodiversidad) web site has fairly complete information about the legal requirements involved. The site is largely in Spanish, though it includes an English profile of CONABIO with contact information.
   
• Thailand
  "Things Insect Traders Should Know" - The web site of Thailand's Forest Protection Office.
   

• Ecuador

  Ministerio del Ambiente
  Avenidas Amazonas y Eloy Alfaro
  Edificio del Ministerio de Agricultura, Piso 8
  QUITO

  Tel: +593 (2) 250 63 37; 254 19 55
  Fax: +593 (2) 256 40 37; 250 63 37
  Email: pgaliano@ambiente.gov.ec

  Other Management Authorities competent to grant permits:

  Ministerio del Ambiente
  Distrito Regional Azuay - Cañar - Morona Santiago
  Bolivar 533 y Mariano Cueva
  CUENCA

  Tel: +593 (7) 282 75 83
  Fax: +593 (7) 282 30 74
  Email: forazuay@cue.satnet.net

  Ministerio del Ambiente
  Parque Nacional Galápagos
  PUERTA AYORA
  Isla Santa Cruz, Galápagos

  Tel: +593 (5) 252 61 89
  Fax: +593 (5) 252 61 90
  Email: wtapia@spng.org.ec