The choice of suitable companion plants is crucial for enhancing pest management strategies in agricultural fields. Riptortus pedestris, an important agricultural pest, has drawn attention for its serious damage on soybean. To identify an ideal companion plant for soybean, we investigated the pest’s behavioral patterns when exposed to corn seedlings in laboratory. Series of choice experiments were conducted for 4th instar nymphs and unmated female adults of R. pedestris when presented with corn and/or soybean pot against soybean or blank pot. In 4th instar nymphs, 56% preferred the treatment of corn pot plus soybean pot over soybean alone pot while 69% of unmated female adults preferred the same combination. These findings provide valuable insights into the behavior of this insect pest, which could be beneficial for establishing polycultures in agricultural fields.

R. pedestris is a major insect pest in agricultural production, especially on soybean and tree fruit, in Korea. Currently, the management of this pest relies mainly on insecticide application in most commodities. However, the chemical controls cause numerous environmental problems. To develop sustainable management tools, it is fundamental to understand the basic biology and ecology of R. pedestris. However, the overwintering ecology of this pest is virtually unknown. In this study, we surveyed diverse landscapes including high elevation mountains soybean fields and there neighboring forests to find and characterize the overwintering sites of R. pedestris. In the field, we sampled leaf litters from 1㎡ grids to locate overwintering R. pedestris. The samples were taken every 100m altitude in the mountain areas or every 50m distance in the flat landscapes. Overwintering R. pedestris were found from 6 samples out of 137 samples. All overwintering R. pedestris were located from forested areas adjacent to urban landscapes in Seong-Nam si, Gyeong-Gi Do. Interestingly, no overwintering R. pedestris was found from in the samples collected from high elivation mountains including Yeon-In, Song-Ni, Chi-Ak, Ga-Ya, Wol-Chul. likewise, no overwintering individual was found from soybean fields and their neighboring forested areas. With caveat that the data were collected only for 1 year, our results support that R. pedestris overwinters solitary resulting in low detection rates from the samples. Given that R. pedestris typically disperse into cultivated crops with high densities, it is important to better understand environmental factors affecting the presence or absence of overwintering R. pedestrris in diverse landscapes. The knowledge would be essential to develop sustainable monitoring and management programs for this economically important pest in Korea.