Crop traits influencing abundance and distribution of rice‐associated pentatomoids and trophic guilds to unveil potential pests

Abstract Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world's population and provides around 20% of the plant‐based calories consumed by humans. Pentatomoids are important in Neotropical rice paddies because they group several main crop pests. A better understanding of the relationships between these species and crop traits influencing their abundance is needed to generate pest prediction tools and crop management strategies. Here, we present information on the abundance and richness of Pentatomoidea concerning relevant crop characteristics: phenology, seasons (temporal), rice cultivars and plot zones (local). This allowed us to measure whether these crop traits influenced the abundance of this group of insects throughout the rice growing cycle in early and late‐sown plots. We also included an analysis of trophic guilds and species crop importance to account for potential pests. We found that three crop traits stood out as the most critical in determining the interactions of phytophagous pentatomoids with rice plants and that early planting helps to reduce insect abundance in paddies. Our results also show that the stem‐feeding guild concentrated the highest number of species, of which one is a main pest, and three are potential pests reported in other countries but have yet to be found in Argentina. Given the importance of the stem‐feeding guild in rice paddies, it is necessary to develop monitoring to determine whether any of these potential pest species could replace the main crop pests, especially under climate change scenarios that could provide the right conditions for the emergence of new pests.