Abstract. Biological control of pests aims at lowering population levels of pest species by favouring natural enemies, in order to reduce the use of pesticides. The movement behaviour of natural enemies is decisive in the success of biological control: when low habitat quality hinders the diffusion of natural enemies from the border, the density of natural enemies may frequently be heterogeneous inside agricultural plots. We hypothesise that the specific relationship between habitat quality and movement behaviour may allow the improvement of biological control by means of a careful allocation of habitat qualities inside and around the plot. We used three tested individual-based movement models, with different levels of complexity ranging from simple cell-to-cell movements to complex strategies including the sinuosity of the path, boundary crossings, perceptual range, and directional persistence. We used the models to explore how the manipulation of habitat quality may allow significant improvements to the residence time of natural enemies inside the field. We suggest that existing field designs are generally inadequate to retain natural enemies. Mechanistic explanations leading to the highest and lowest residence times are used to draw specific management recommendations.

中文翻译：

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拉近你的敌人：通过个体运动规则加强生物控制，将天敌留在场内

摘要。害虫的生物防治旨在通过偏袒天敌来降低害虫物种的种群水平，以减少农药的使用。天敌的移动行为是生物防治成功与否的决定性因素：当生境质量低阻碍天敌从边界扩散时，农田内天敌的密度可能经常是异质的。我们假设栖息地质量和运动行为之间的特定关系可以通过仔细分配地块内部和周围的栖息地质量来改善生物控制。我们使用了三个经过测试的基于个体的运动模型，具有不同程度的复杂性，从简单的细胞到细胞的运动到复杂的策略，包括路径的曲折，边界交叉、感知范围和定向持久性。我们使用这些模型来探索对栖息地质量的操纵如何显着改善天敌在田间的停留时间。我们建议现有的场地设计通常不足以保留天敌。导致最高和最低停留时间的机械解释用于得出具体的管理建议。