TSWV replicates within its thrips vectors. In this study, we investigated the effects of different host plants and isolates of TSWV on its most important vector in North Carolina, the thrips species Frankliniella fusca. Thrips were reared until adult eclosion in the laboratory on excised leaves of the TSWV host plants Datura stramonium and Emilia sonchifolia under 3 temperature regimes (18.3, 23.9 and 29.4°C). Plants were either infected with the TSWV isolates CFL or RG2 or not infected (control). Measured variables included TSWV transmission to Petunia, leaf disks, thrips development time to adult, adult size, and thrips infection with TSWV. Analyses revealed thrips infection by TSWV, as indicated by a positive ELISA test for the NSs protein, was associated with smaller adult size and prolonged development time to adult. Percentage of the initial cohort of F. fusca that transmitted TSWV was influenced by a host plant by TSWV isolate interaction, while percentage of thrips reaching adulthood was not. The greatest adverse effect on thrips size was observed on D. stramonium, a poor quality host plant, under the highest temperature regime. Because metabolic demands are greatest under elevated temperatures, these results suggest that TSWV infection may lead to a reduced capacity to deal with metabolic stress such as that imposed by plants of marginal host quality.