[Objectives]  To protect and utilize natural enemies, and develop more scientific sampling methods, spatial relationships among natural enemies of Ricania speculum, Ectropis obliqua, Frankliniella intonsa and Toxoptera aurantii Boyer were investigated in the “Baihaozao” tea gardens in suburban Hefei, China in 2015 and 2016. [Methods]  Ranges of spatial dependence (RSDs) of natural enemies were calculated using geostatistics and the spatial relationships among predators and pests were analyzed using grey relational analysis. This paper analyzes why the spatial distribution of natural enemies of insect pests closely match that of their hosts. [Results]  Relational grade analysis indicated that the spatial distribution of the three main natural enemies, Clubiona japonicola (0.859 3), Oxyopes sertatus (0.805 8) and Erigonidium graminicolum

(0.804 7) closely matched that of Ricania speculum in the “baihaozao” tea garden in 2015. However, in 2016, the three main enemies were Erigonidium graminicolum (0.806 2), Tetragnatha squamata (0.792 9) and Neoscona theisi (0.792 2), i.e. only one of the top three predators was the same in both years. The spatial distribution of Clubiona japonicola (0.790 9); Theridion octomaculatum (0.790 4) and Oxyopes sertatus (0.789 4) also closely matched that of Ectropis obliqua in 2015, but in 2016 the three main enemies were Neoscona theisi (0.877 7), Erigonidium graminicolum (0.872 0) and Clubiona japonicola (0.823 0). Again, only one of the top three predators was the same in both years. The spatial distribution of Oxyopes sertatus (0.890 0), Theridion octomaculatum (0.878 9) and Clubiona japonicola (0.843 5) closely matched that of Frankliniella intonsa in 2015, but in 2016 the three main enemies included Tetragnatha maxillosa (0.879 7), Theridion octomaculatum (0.866 5) and Clubiona japonicola (0.855 3); only two of the top three predators was the same in both years although their relative ranking was the same. The spatial distribution of Tetragnatha maxillosa (0.819 9), Neoscona theisi (0.816 4) and Tetragnatha squamata (0.814 2), closely matched that of T. aurantii in 2015. However, in 2016 the three main enemies were Neoscona theisi (0.840 7), Misumenops tricuspidatus (0.814 7) and Theridion octomaculatum (0.806 8); i.e. only one of the top three predators was the same in both years. [Conclusion]  The main reason for the observed changes in the relative abundance of natural enemies of pests in different years is annual variation in climate. The smaller the ratio between numbers of pests and their natural enemies the closer the spatial relationship between them should be because of greater competition among natural enemies for prey.