Abstract: The test on the preference of Thrips palmi to eight color sticky cards was carried out in an eggplant field. The thrip had the strongest preference to blue sticky card (P<0.01), and its preference order to the other 7 color cards was as follows: blue, turguoise, yellow, deep blue, green, orange, red and black. Results on the trapping effect of blue sticky card from east, south, west and north directions show that most thrips were trapped from the north,which existed a significant difference with those from the other three directions (P<0.05). Five blue sticky cards were set up at the heights of 73.9,101.7,129.5,157.3 and 185.1 cm above the ground to trap thrips, when the average height of eggplant was approximately 70 cm. More thrips were trapped of 73.9 and 101.7 cm height, which existed significant difference with those at the other three heights. During 5 continuous 3 hour spans from 5 am to 8 pm, the numbers of female, male and total adult thrips trapped were not significantly different.

Key words: Thrips palmi, Color preference, Sticky card, foraging behavior, red-crowned crane, stable isotope, food chain