Abstract: Spider is an important natural enemy group in croplands, whose biodiversity is affected by diverse factors at field scale. The wildflower strips in field margin could improve rural aesthetics, but their effectiveness in maintaining spider diversity remains poorly understood in China. In this study, eight pairs of focal fields with similar agricultural management and landscape composition were selected. In each pair, one field was selected next to a wildflower strip previously established as part of the focal field, and the other field next to habitats without flower resource was selected. We captured spiders in the fields to figure out factors that influence spider diversity. Wildflower strips increased cropland spider diversity, especially within the fields. The distribution of dominant spider species was not correlated with wildflower strip shapes, but positively correlated with species richness and width of wildflower strips. Our results indicated that the construction of field margin wildflower strips can increase spider diversity, and thus contribute to the biological control of insect pests.

Key words: wildflower strip, landscape structure, spider.