Two Aphid Species, Phorodon cannabis and Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale , Identified as Potential Pests on Industrial Hemp, Cannabis sativa L., in the US Midwest

Cannabis sativa L. is indigenous to eastern Asia, grown since ancient times for its medicinal and textile uses (Russo et al., 2008). In the USA, production is currently increasing (USDA-NRCS, 2018) for industrial fiber, seed oil, medicinal and recreational uses. As production increases, there is growing interest in properly identifying and managing pests attacking the crop in both field and greenhouse environments. In this brief we provide new records of distribution of Phorodon cannabis, a recently introduced insect species in the USA, and Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale, a widely distributed species on grasses and other dicots. In addition, we are including morphological and molecular information of P. cannabis and P. humuli to avoid the misidentification of these two closely related insect species.