Spatio–temporal dynamics of tritrophic interactions are important to understand the regulation processes responsible for population dynamics within those interactions. Spatial and temporal dynamics are both dependent on sample support and scale of the experimentation. Biological processes are, at least to some degree, defined by the scale at which the change in the process occurs. There is a need to integrate the spatial and temporal dimensions into the assessment of herbivore population dynamics. Additionally, there is an increasing need to integrate basic biological processes and interactions, both in space and time, that occur among the plant, pest and beneficial species in various cropping systems. On a preferred host, where Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko) was highly aggregated and had a greater population growth rate, differential predator orientation was highly advantageous. However, on a nonpreferred host, where D. noxia was more broadly distributed and had a lower population growth rate, differential predator orientation had little effect on finding aphids or reducing populations. An understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of a herbivore can greatly improve the ability to predict plant–herbivore–biological control agent interactions.