Revista Agrogeoambiental, Pouso Alegre, v. 11, n. 4, dez. 2019. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18406/2316-1817v11n420191374 Stink Bug Population in Cotton Plantations with Different Plant Spacings Izidro dos Santos de Lima Junior 1 Paulo Eduardo Degrande 2 Elmo Pontes de Melo 3 Ligia Maria Maraschi da Silva Piletti 4 Antonio Luiz Viegas Neto 5 Abstract The increase in cotton plant population by decreasing the spacing between rows cause some changes in phenotypical characteristics of cotton plants, such as decrease in number of leaves per plant, low-development leaves, and great soil shading. Stink bugs of the Pentatomidae family that migrate from soybean crops seem to benefit from the cotton narrow-row planting system. The objec- tive of the present work was to evaluate adult and nymph stink bug populations in cotton plantations under three plant spacing. The experiment was conducted in the 2010/2011 cotton season at the Experimental Farm of the Federal University of Grande Dourados, in Dourados, MS, Brazil. A rando- mized block experimental design was used, with three cotton growing systems and eight replications, totaling 24 plots. The cotton growing systems were selected based on spacing between planting rows (0.22, 0.45, and 0.90 m). Five evaluations were conducted to survey the stink bug populations, with two samples per plot. The number of nymphs and adults of Euschistus heros and Edessa medita- bunda was counted. The spacing between cotton planting rows affects stink bug populations of the species Euschistus heros and Edessa meditabunda. Increases in cotton plant density decrease the occurrence of stink bug in the plantation. The stink bug population is greater in cotton plantations with spacing of 0.90 m between planting rows. Keywords: Narrow-row cotton. Pentatomidae. Environment. Introduction Plant spacing and density have been proposed for the growth of different plants; in the case of cotton, it has sought to meet specific needs regarding cultural practices, increasing yield, and decre- asing production cost (BORIN et al., 2017). Several studies have addressed the decrease of space between planting rows and increase of number of plants per area. Silva et al. (2011a) found that the use of ultra-narrow-row spacing results in higher cotton yield than narrow-row and conventional 1 Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Mato Grosso do Sul (IFMS), professor EBTT. izidro.lima@ifms.edu.br. Rod. BR 463, s/n, Km 14, C. P.: 287, CEP: 79909-000. 2 Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (UFGD), professor titular. paulo.degrande@outlook.com. 3 IFMS, professor EBTT. elmo.melo@ifms.edu.br. 4 IFMS, professor EBTT. ligia.piletti@ifms.edu.br. 5 IFMS, professor EBTT. antonio.viegas@ifms.edu.br.