Many herbivores exhibit specialized behavior and/or physiology regarding their host plants. Heliothis subflexa larvae feed on plants in the genus Physalis and will not survive on plants outside this genus, ie. “non-hosts”. The small size and low mobility of newly-hatched larvae relative to the adult females would predict that eggs are laid on the host plant to ensure that the larvae find their food source. However, in previous field observations, we found that H. subflexa lay an average of 15% (+/- 20% stdev) of eggs on non-hosts (within >2 minutes of observation). To examine the role volatiles play in these non-host ovipositions, I quantified the distance between non-hosts used for oviposition and host plants and looked at the effect of the presence of volatiles on oviposition. I also quantified some of the fitness consequences of oviposition on a non-host by exploring the potential for increased hatch rate and/or reduced parasitism on non-hosts and neonate movement from non-hosts to host plants.