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Plant bugs (Miridae species) have become major agricultural pests that cause increasing and severe economic damage. Plant‐mediated RNA interference (RNAi) is emerging as an eco‐friendly, efficient, and reliable strategy for pest management. In this study, we isolated and characterized a lethal gene of Apolygus lucorum and named it Apolygus lucorum LIM (AlLIM), which produced A. lucorum mortality rates ranging from 38% to 81%. Downregulation of the AlLIM gene expression in A. lucorum by injection of a double‐stranded RNA (dsRNA) led to muscle structural disorganization that resulted in metamorphosis deficiency and increased mortality. Then we constructed a plant expression vector that enabled transgenic cotton to highly and stably express dsRNA of AlLIM (dsAlLIM) by Agrobacterium‐mediated genetic transformation. In the field bioassay, dsAlLIM transgenic cotton was protected from A. lucorum …