Industrial hemp is a quickly expanding production crop in the US, totaling a value of $445 million in 2024 and representing an increase of 40% from the previous year. This rapid growth has outpaced entomological knowledge about hemp production and its pests and associated beneficial insects since its recent legalization in the United States. Responsible integrated pest management of hemp must rely on foundational knowledge of insect community structure and dynamics both spatially within and between fields, and temporally across growing seasons and years. To investigate potential pest and beneficial insect and arthropod communities in California hemp, arthropods were collected across the 2024 and 2025 growing seasons in Fresno county California. Sampling locations varied in distance to field edges to evaluate pest and beneficial arthropod locations within fields, and collections were repeated to assess temporal changes in overall populations size, community diversity, and individual seasonal dynamics of important community members. Here we report on findings from the past two years of this data collection effort. Such results can reveal how spatial and temporal factors influence arthropod communities and thus the potential pest pressure, crop damage risk, and beneficial ecosystem service provisioning of California hemp. Understanding here will support the development and implementation of future integrated pest management tactics and help identify important members of the arthropod community within this newly legalized and rapidly expanding US crop.
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