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Plants
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Functional Plants for Ecological Control of Agricultural Pests
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Functional Plants for Ecological Control of Agricultural Pests

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Protection and Biotic Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 6647

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Fajun Chen

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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Forestry Biosecurity, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: insect ecology and forecast; population ecology; environmental entomology; agricultural insect and pest management; insect molecular biology; plant–insect interaction; climate change biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xiaoling Tan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: insect ecology and pest management; climate change; plant resistant to pests; environmental entomology; ecological control of pests
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xiaoguang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
Interests: plant-insect interaction, plant defense; nutrient physiology in insects; insect ecology; insect physiology and toxicology; ecological control of pests

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, all trades and professions are focused on global ecological and green transformations. Agriculture is also undergoing ecological and green transformations pertaining to crop production from high inputs of fossil fertilizers to utilizing organic fertilizers and green manures, and from high inputs of chemical pesticides to utilizing green pesticides and ecological control tactics. For the ecological control of agricultural pests (including insects, pathogens, weeds, etc.), functional plants have great advantages and high potential application efficiency.

Functional plants are those with specific ecological functions in agroecosystem, e.g., trap plants, repellent plants, insectary plants, nectar plants, banker plants, accompany plants, and even functional crops and cover crops, etc., due to their unique ecological roles, and functional plants are increasingly attracting the interest of farmers, researchers, scientists, and even government officials, as they are utilized for the control and management of agricultural pests during field production. Moreover, many types of functional plants are also commonly used as Chinese medicinal herbs with high medicinal values for farmers to obtain high incomes as they cultivate these plants in fields. And many functional components and active substances can also be extracted from these functional plants to make plant-derived pesticides used as green pesticides instead of chemical pesticides for the ecological control of agricultural pests.

Prof. Dr. Fajun Chen
Dr. Xiaoling Tan
Dr. Xiaoguang Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • functional plants
  • agricultural pests
  • ecological control of pests
  • green control of pests
  • landscape layout
  • diversity utilization
  • plant chemistry
  • plant-derived pesticides
  • resistance and susceptibility of plants (including transgenic resistant crops, e.g., transgenic Bt crops)
  • conservation for natural enemies
  • refuge effect for natural enemies
  • bridge effects for natural enemies
  • attraction and repellence of plant VOCs
  • plant–insect interaction
  • insect biodiversity
  • pest monitoring
  • ecological agriculture

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1186 KB  
Article
Facultative Endosymbiont Serratia symbiotica Provides Fitness Benefits for Celery Aphid Semiaphis heraclei Collected from Plant Cnidium monnieri
by Chunyan Chang, Yingshuo Han, Kun Yang, Xin Jiang, Xinrui Zhang, Zhuo Li and Feng Ge
Plants 2025, 14(21), 3391; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14213391 - 5 Nov 2025
Viewed by 679
Abstract
Semiaphis heraclei Takahashi (Hemiptera: Aphididae) serves as a vital resource for natural enemies from functional plant Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cusson (Apiaceae), playing a crucial role in ecological dynamics. Endosymbionts influence the performance of their hosts. Here, we determined the communities of facultative endosymbionts [...] Read more.
Semiaphis heraclei Takahashi (Hemiptera: Aphididae) serves as a vital resource for natural enemies from functional plant Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cusson (Apiaceae), playing a crucial role in ecological dynamics. Endosymbionts influence the performance of their hosts. Here, we determined the communities of facultative endosymbionts in aphids from Lonicera japonica Thunb. (Caprifoliaceae), Apium graveolens L. (Apiaceae), and C. monnieri and assessed the performance of four aphid clones. The infection rates of Serratia symbiotica Moran (Gammaproteobacteria: Enterobacteriaceae) and Regiella insecticola Moran (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae) reached 100%. Notably, the infection rates of Spiroplasma and Rickettsia varied across host plants. Fitness assessment revealed that aphids performed better on their natal hosts, exhibiting shorter nymphal development times and higher fecundity. S. symbiotica had contrasting effects on aphids based on their origin. It prolonged the development duration and decreased the intrinsic rate of increase (rm), net reproductive rate (R0), and finite rate of increase (λ) in aphids collected from plant A. graveolens. However, for aphids collected from plant C. monnieri, it shortened the doubling time (DT) and improved rm, R0, and λ, while prolonging the mean generation time. Our studies are the first to investigate the infection status and role of facultative endosymbionts in aphid S. heraclei, extending the documented effects of plant diversity to fluctuations in the infection rate, with potentially far-reaching consequences for related endosymbionts’ ecosystem processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Plants for Ecological Control of Agricultural Pests)
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20 pages, 3070 KB  
Article
Effects of Corn–Soybean Strip Intercropping on Control Efficiency of Insect Pests and Crop Yields
by Xiping Wei, Zhoulong Cheng, Junjie Wang, Chongyi Liu, Shanglin Yang and Fajun Chen
Plants 2025, 14(21), 3358; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14213358 - 2 Nov 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 991
Abstract
Corn–soybean strip intercropping (abbr. CSSI system) can enhance species biodiversity and ecological services for ecological control of insect pests. To improve its effectiveness and fully utilize it to improve ecological control of insect pests and crop production, two monoculture types of corn (C) [...] Read more.
Corn–soybean strip intercropping (abbr. CSSI system) can enhance species biodiversity and ecological services for ecological control of insect pests. To improve its effectiveness and fully utilize it to improve ecological control of insect pests and crop production, two monoculture types of corn (C) and soybean (S), and two strip intercropping patterns (i.e., C3S3 and C3S4, indicating three rows of corn strip intercropped with three and four rows of soybeans respectively), were conducted to assess the CSSI system’s (i.e., C3S3 and C3S4) impacts on the abundance of insect pests and crop yields by a two-year field experiment. The results indicated that a total of 11 species of insect pests were found in the CSSI system. Compared with C or S monoculture, the community indexes of insect pests (including the Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H), the Pielou’s evenness index (E), and the Margalef’s richness index (D)) increased, and the Simpson’s dominance index (C) decreased in the C3S3 and C3S4 patterns in 2022. Compared to the C and S monoculture, the CSSI system decreased the population dynamics of total insect pests and the key insect pests Trialeurodes vaporariorum on corn and soybean plants, respectively. In the CSSI system, T. vaporariorum exhibited higher population dynamics on corn plants than on soybean plants, indicating a preference for corn plants under the CSSI system. Moreover, the corn yield per hectare in the C3S4 pattern was significantly higher than that of the C monoculture in 2022–2023. The biomass per plant and the 1000-grain weight of corn in the C3S3 pattern were significantly lower than that in the C monoculture and C3S4 pattern in 2022. The biomass per plant, the 1000-grain weight and yield per hectare of soybean in the C3S3 and C3S4 patterns were significantly lower than that in the S monoculture in 2022–2023. The land equivalent ratio (LER) was <1.0 in the CSSI system, posing yield loss risk for soybeans in the CSSI system. The competitive ratio (CR) of corn was greater than soybean in the CSSI system. In addition, the yield of corn and soybeans were not significantly correlated with the abundance of total insect pests, while the soybean yield was significantly positively correlated to the abundance of T. vaporariorum. In conclusion, it is presumed that the CSSI system can decrease the abundances of insect pests, particularly key insect pests, and maintain their community stability, thereby preventing insect pests’ outbreak. However, the CSSI system is disadvantageous for soybean yield, as it cannot fully utilize land resources and may pose a risk of system yield loss. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Plants for Ecological Control of Agricultural Pests)
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22 pages, 4645 KB  
Article
Can Sweet Maize Act as a Trap Crop for Fall Armyworm?
by Caihong Tian, Junyi Zhang, Guoping Li, Jianrong Huang, Shaoying Wu, Xinming Yin and Hongqiang Feng
Plants 2025, 14(13), 1944; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14131944 - 25 Jun 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1076
Abstract
Among various plants, corn is the primary host damaged by Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). After long-term regional colonization, its larvae feed on sweet waxy corn and fresh corn for extended periods. A question arises: Does long-term feeding on different corn [...] Read more.
Among various plants, corn is the primary host damaged by Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). After long-term regional colonization, its larvae feed on sweet waxy corn and fresh corn for extended periods. A question arises: Does long-term feeding on different corn varieties affect their rhythms? Currently, there are no reports addressing these issues. To facilitate the formulation of effective prevention and control measures, Zhengdan 958 and Zhenghuangnuo were selected as representative varieties of normal and sweet waxy corn, respectively, for laboratory experiments. S. frugiperda were fed the leaves of these two corn types over nine consecutive generations, thereby establishing distinct S. frugiperda strains associated with each corn variety. Additionally, a strain fed an artificial diet served as the control group. Through a comparative analysis of the emergence, movement, nutritional foraging, dormancy, mating, and oviposition behaviors of adult fall armyworms from different populations, differences in the six behavioral peak times among the strains were identified. RT-qPCR analysis indicated significant differences in the expression levels of four circadian clock genes across different populations and tissues of the fall armyworm. Feeding on different host plants influenced the expression of circadian clock genes and their associated behavioral rhythms. Our study showed that sweet corn is more conducive to pupation, mating, and oviposition. Because of these differences in adult insect rhythms, sweet corn may have an impact on the reproduction of fall armyworms in the Huang–Huai–Hai corn-planting region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Plants for Ecological Control of Agricultural Pests)
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14 pages, 2325 KB  
Article
Natural Enemies Acquire More Prey Aphids from Hormone-Treated Insect-Attracting Plants
by Xiaosheng Jiang, Xingrui Zhang, Guodong Han, Shovon Chandra Sarkar and Feng Ge
Plants 2025, 14(2), 147; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14020147 - 7 Jan 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2958
Abstract
Exogenous plant hormones regulate the agronomic and physiological performance of plants and thus can influence the abundance of insect groups. We surveyed the arthropods on flowering plants Cnidium monnieri and found that the abundance of natural enemies Propylaea japonica and Orius minutus in [...] Read more.
Exogenous plant hormones regulate the agronomic and physiological performance of plants and thus can influence the abundance of insect groups. We surveyed the arthropods on flowering plants Cnidium monnieri and found that the abundance of natural enemies Propylaea japonica and Orius minutus in the plots treated with salicylic acid (SA) and indole acetic acid (IAA) was significantly increased compared with those in the clean water (control) plots. Then, we investigated the effects of spraying SA, IAA, and clean water on the population parameters of Semiaphis heraclei reared on C. monnieri. Our results from the age-stage, two-sex life table analysis revealed a significantly shorter pre-adult duration for aphids reared on SA-treated C. monnieri compared to those reared on the other two treatments. The intrinsic rate of increase, finite rate of increase, and net reproductive rate of aphids reared on SA- and IAA-treated C. monnieri were significantly higher than those of aphids reared on clean water-treated C. monnieri. The fecundity rate was higher under the SA and IAA treatments than in the control, but the difference was not significant. This improved the ability of flowering plants to attract natural enemies by providing a larger food source. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Plants for Ecological Control of Agricultural Pests)
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