Local and landscape scale drivers of Euschistus servus and Lygus lineolaris in North Carolina small grain agroecosystems

1. Crop production sequences influence arthropod populations in temporally unstable row crop systems. Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) represents one of the earliest abundant crops in south-eastern United States. This study aims to understand primary source habitats driving brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say), and tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), population abundance in wheat.
2. To better understand these relationships, adult and nymphal densities were in wheat fields weekly from flowering through harvest in 2019 and 2020. Geospatial data were used to measure landscape composition surrounding sampled fields. We investigated the influence of landscape predictors on E. servus and L. lineolaris abundance using generalized linear mixed modelling.
3. Field size, proportion of agriculture, proportion of wheat area, and proportion of soybean Glycine max L.) area from the previous year in the surrounding landscape were associated with E. servus abundance in wheat. Similarly, L. lineolaris abundance was associated with proportion of wheat area and soybean area from the previous year.
4. These results reveal the influence of soybean area planted the previous year on insect pest densities the following spring in wheat. Further, results suggest agricultural landscapes dominated by wheat are associated with decreased pest abundance across the sampled region.