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Abstract Agricultural landscapes are constantly changing as farmers adopt new production practices and respond to changing environmental conditions. Some of these changes alter landscape structure with impacts on natural pest control, pesticide use, and conservation of biodiversity. In rice agroecosystems the effect of landscape structure on natural enemies and pest suppression is often poorly understood. Here we investigate the effect of landscape composition and configuration on a key pest of rice, the brown planthopper ( Nilaparvata lugens ). Using N. lugens as sentinel prey coupled with predator exclusions, we investigated landscape effects on herbivore suppression and rice grain yield at multiple spatial scales in two regions of Bangladesh. Ladybird beetles and spiders were the most abundant natural enemies of N. lugens with landscape effects observed at all scales on ladybird beetles. Specifically, ladybird beetles were positively influenced by road edges, and fallow land, while spiders were strongly influenced only by rice phenology. Predator exclusion cages showed that N. lugens abundance significantly increased in caged plots, reducing rice gain yield. We also used an estimated biocontrol service index that showed a significant positive relationship with landscape diversity and a significant negative impact on pest density and yield loss. These results suggest that promoting fallow lands and fragmented patches between rice fields could lead to more sustainable insect pest management in rice agroecosystems, potentially reducing the practice of prophylactic insecticide use. 

Landscape diversity is one of the key drivers for maintaining ecosystem services in agricultural production by providing vital habitats and alternative food sources for beneficial insects and pollinators within the agricultural landscapes. The landscape structure, land uses, and diversity differ between geographic locations. However, how the changes of landscape structure and land use diversity affect the arthropod diversity in a geographic area is poorly understood. Here, we tested the impact of landscape diversity on the rice locations in Bangladesh. Results ranged from highly diversified to very highly diversified in Chattogram (>7.9), to highly diversified (0.590.79) in Satkhira and moderately (0.390.59) to less diversified (0.190.39) in Patuakhali. These significant different landscape diversities influenced the arthropod diversity in rice fields. Arthropod species diversity increases with the increase in the Land Use Mix (LUM) index. The maximum tillering stage of rice growth harbored higher abundance and species diversity in rice fields. Moreover, we found that vegetation is the most important factor influencing the abundance of arthropods. Extensive agriculture and forest contributed substantially to predicting arthropod richness. Meanwhile, barren land and high-density residential land as well as intensive agriculture had large impact on species diversity. This study indicates that landscape diversity plays a vital role in shaping the species diversity in rice fields, providing guidelines for the conservation of arthropod diversity, maximizing natural pest control ecosystem service and more secure crop production itself.