Zoophytophagous predators (ZP) display an omnivorous behavior and feed on both plants and arthropods (Coll and Guershon 2002). On the one hand, zoophagy allows them to effectively feed on a wide range of prey, including many agricultural pests such as whiteflies, moths, aphids, thrips, or mites. On the other hand, phytophagy allows them to remain and even establish in crops during periods of prey scarcity. These positive traits have led to the inclusion of many species of ZP in sustainable pest management programs for different crops worldwide (van Lenteren et al. 2018). In recent years, the use and conservation of ZP have been extensively promoted, mainly because ZP can sustain themselves on plant-provided materials even when prey is scarce in crop fields. In turn, these ZP may retard recolonization of crop plants by pest species. The trend observed in the greater use of species of ZP has been associated with an increase in the number of new investigations into this important group of natural enemies. The Journal of Pest Science has published many advances in this field, and the motivation to launch this special issue arose to continue to deepen scientific knowledge on ZP. This special issue covers the most recent developments in ZP. Fourteen innovative research articles and three reviews are included in this special issue focused of artificial selection on biological and behavioral traits, the capacity of ZP to induce plant defenses, trophic interactions involving ZP at different levels, behavioral aspects of ZP, or strategies to minimize plant damage and/ or maximize their biocontrol services in integrated and organic crop protection programs.

Mirid bugs (Hemiptera: Miridae) are among the most paradigmatic representative ZP. Initially, mirids were mainly used to control whiteflies in greenhouse tomato crops. In recent years, their use has increased in southern Europe for the management of the South America pinworm Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) (Desneux et al. 2022). The successes achieved with mirids, such as Macrolophus pygmaeus (Rambur) and Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) (Fig.  1) in Europe, have motivated biocontrol practitioners in other regions to explore native or naturalized mirids for the control not only of these two pests (Roda et al. 2020; van Lenteren et al. 2021) but also of other pests such as the tomato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli (Šulc) (Hemiptera: Triozidae) (Pérez-Aguilar et al. 2019).

The best known cases of ZP exploiting their phytophagy in pest management have occurred in horticultural crops with species of the Miridae and Anthocoridae families. However, other ZP [i.e., pentatomids (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) (Plata-Rueda et al. 2022) and predatory mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) (Maoz et al. 2011; Cruz‐Miralles et al. 2019)] are immerging as important biocontrol agents in other agroecosystems, such as perennial crops.

Fig. 1
figure 1

A female of the zoophytophagous predator Nesidiocoris tenuis Reuter with stylets inserted into tomato plant tissue. Photograph credit: Ángel Plata (IVIA)

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An attractive added value that phytophagy provides ZP has recently been revealed. When feeding on plants, ZP induce defense mechanisms (both direct and indirect); the response of these plants to ZP feeding is similar to that to harmful herbivores (Pérez-Hedo et al. 2022). This activation makes plants more resilient against the attack of certain pests. Further, ZP activation makes plants more attractive to natural enemies due to the release of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) (Pérez-Hedo et al. 2015). In addition, some HIPVs communicate a warning message to neighboring, uninfested plants ahead of upcoming herbivore attack (Pérez-Hedo et al. 2021a). Upon receiving these warning signals, healthy plants, in turn, activate their own defensive mechanisms. These discoveries, generated from studies with ZP, have developed a new pest management method based on plant-to-plant communication (Pérez-Hedo et al. 2021b).

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the genetic improvement in natural enemies to select for desirable traits (Leung et al. 2020). In horticultural crops, it has been possible to improve several traits of interest (i.e., size or suitability of pollen diet) in Orius laevigatus Fieber (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) as well as to increase its tolerance to certain insecticides (Bielza et al. 2020; Mendoza et al. 2021). In stone fruit crops, an isoline with increased zoophagy of the mostly phytozoophagous Campylomma verbasci (Meyer) (Hemiptera: Miridae) was achieved through selection (Dumont et al. 2019).

Although ZP have an important role in crop protection, the phytophagy of some species may limit their use as biocontrol agents or, at times, even cause a ZP species to be considered pest (Moerkens et al. 2020). The most controversial species in this respect is N. tenuis. Despite its high efficacy against whiteflies and T. absoluta, N. tenuis may cause severe damage to tomato crops when its densities are high and prey is scarce (Chinchilla-Ramírez et al. 2021). It has recently been observed that phytophagy could be genetically regulated, and selecting for less phytophagous strains is possible (Chinchilla-Ramírez et al. 2020). In addition, earlier ideas, such as using companion plants or adding alternative foods, have been explored to minimize damage caused by N. tenuis to the crop (Biondi et al. 2016; Siscaro et al. 2019; Urbaneja-Bernat et al. 2019; Chailleux et al. 2022).

The vegetation composition in the landscape has an important effect on the movement and dispersion of ZP through the agroecosystems (Thomine et al. 2020). In recent years, biodiversity has been encouraged in order to increase sustainability of both protected and open-field cropping systems. As a result, agricultural systems are becoming increasingly more complex and thus have significantly more ecological interactions among the operating species. In the case of ZP, these interactions are even more complicated because they shift their diet between various prey and plants in the landscape. The complexity of these systems calls for the use of more advanced research tools, including molecular techniques (Moreno-Ripoll et al. 2014), and new analytical methods, such as geostatistics, in combination with theoretical modeling studies (Moerkens et al. 2021; Neeson et al. 2013; Schuldiner-Harpaz 2022).

This special issue aims at bringing together the most recent research on these topics related to ZP. Undoubtedly, this special issue contributes significantly to our basic and applied understanding of ZP toward better manage agroecosystem sustainability.

Finally, the guest editors would like to thank all the authors who have enthusiastically contributed to this special issue, the anonymous reviewers for their important insights that helped improve the quality of this issue, and especially the two Journal editors-in-chief, Nicolas Desneux and Antonio Biondi, for all the help and support they have provided us throughout the development of this special issue.