Rice Stubble Provides Overwintering Microhabitats for Spiders in Winter-Fallowed Rice Fields

Jie Sun, Xuhao Song, Jundong He, Dongmei Chen, Tingbang Yang () and Aimin Shi
Additional contact information
Jie Sun: Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, Ministry of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China
Xuhao Song: Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, Ministry of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China
Jundong He: Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, Ministry of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China
Dongmei Chen: Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, Ministry of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China
Tingbang Yang: Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, Ministry of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China
Aimin Shi: Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, Ministry of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Spiders are among the predominant predatory arthropods in rice field ecosystems. Although the potential of spiders for controlling pests during the growth stages of rice is well known, few studies have focused on the overwintering habits of spiders after rice harvesting. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the potential of rice stubble as an overwintering microhabitat for spiders in winter-fallowed rice fields. To this end, we investigated the arthropod community composition and analyzed the prey spectra of common predators in rice stubble in winter-fallowed rice fields in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, China. The results showed that abundant predatory arthropods, particularly spiders, were present in the rice stubble, followed by other arthropods and pests. Dietary analysis via DNA metabarcoding revealed the prey availability and/or predation frequency of spiders is low in winter rice fields. Nevertheless, pests and other arthropods (particularly collembolans) within rice stubble serve as food resources for predators, particularly spiders, in winter-fallowed rice fields. Our results confirm that rice stubble provides overwintering microhabitats for spiders in winter-fallowed fields. Therefore, it is particularly important to properly manage rice stubble in winter-fallowed rice fields to enhance the biological pest control services of predators (including spiders). In addition, our findings highlight the potential of rice stubble as a habitat for the artificial reproduction of spiders for pest control in rice fields.

Keywords: biological control; diet analysis; DNA metabarcoding; microhabitat selection; predatory arthropods; trophic interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/4/381/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/4/381/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:4:p:381-:d:1588777

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().