1 Field margin vegetation provides resources for natural enemies of crop herbivores. Thus, the design of plant mixtures improving resource provisioning is being discussed increasingly with respect to improving herbivore control. 2 We set up a field experiment to assess the effect of (i) a wildflower strip optimized for nectar provisioning; (ii) a grass strip and (iii) spontaneous vegetation on herbivore regulation in oilseed rape and wheat. We also analyzed the attractiveness of plant species to natural enemies. 3 The cover of flowering entomophilous plant species as a proxy of floral resource provisioning was twice as high in wildflower strips compared with the other strip treatments. Natural enemy densities were higher within and close to wildflower strips in the field. A corresponding effect on aphid predation and aphid infestation was observed. Significant negative correlations between natural enemy abundance in the margin and aphid infestation in the fields supported a causal relationship. The sown wildflower strip species were more attractive to natural enemies than spontaneous vegetation. 4 The results of the present study demonstrate that improved nectar provisioning increased the predation and parasitism of crop herbivores. Further research on the spatio-temporal dynamics of interactions is needed to determine why not all crop herbivores respond to an increase of natural enemies in field margins.

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Non-crop vegetation of field margins provides resources for natural enemies of crop herbivores. However, it is still not well known whether this resource provisioning effect is strong enough to improve herbivore regulation within crop fields and which plant species and functional groups favour this ecosystem service. A better understanding of the interactions between field margin vegetation and herbivore regulation is crucial to evaluate management strategies and to design suppressive plant mixtures. We surveyed 64 wheat and oilseed rape fields of Western identification of plant species influencing several response variables of herbivore regulation at the same time. Our study demonstrated the importance of entomophilous species that flowered at peak infestation of crop herbivores. Spontaneous field margins rich in flowering entomophilous species provide an important ecosystem service without expensive sowing of seed mixtures.