Abstract: The searching behavior of Empoasca onukii for fresh tea leaves and color cards in yellow, white and green was investigated by the video trajectory analysis instrument, which was based on EthoVision XT 11.5 software. The results showed that: (1) it took more time for virgin females to move from the releasing spot to the tested leaf edge. They mostly moved out the experimental leaf, while the copulated females moved from the releasing spot to the tested leaf edge more quickly and spent the most of time on the experimental leaf. (2) The virgin males detected the leaf from the releasing spot quickly, whose trajectory was very long, complicated and mostly on the leaf, and the copulated males slightly slowed down their speed, mostly searched out the leaf. (3) If stimulated, the tested leafhopper would open out the wings and result in the increase of its body area. When surpassed the normal area by 60%, 20% to 60 % and lower than 20%, the leafhopper′s status was called ′mania′, ′activity′ and ′still′ behavior respectively. After copulating, the ′mania′ durations of both female and male significantly lengthened, especially male. (4) Both before and after copulating, the female spent more time on the yellow card than the male; however, on the green card, the male searched for a longer time than the female. (5) After copulating, both emerging frequency and searching time of females slightly rose within yellow card area, but obviously dropped within green card area. Correspondingly, both emerging frequency and searching time of males a little reduced within both yellow and green cards. It was considered that before copulating, males were more intensively taxised to tea leaf than females, but after copulating, the directionality of females to the odor from tea leaf increased but the preference of males for the odor from tea leaf weakened. Moreover, males preferred green slightly and females preferred yellow, and copulation enhanced the preference of females to yellow but reduced that of males to green.

Key words: copulation, Empoasca onukii, female and male adults, video trajectory analysis, taxis