Investigations into the production of plant volatiles in response to insect feeding have generally focused on the response of plants to a single chewing (e.g. Lepidopteran) herbivore species. Less is known about the defensive responses of plants to simultaneous infestation by multiple herbivore species or to insects that utilize other modes of feeding, such as piercing-sucking. Yet, in both natural and agricultural systems, plants are commonly challenged simultaneously by an array of herbivore species that cause different types of tissue damage. Insight into how plants respond to different types of herbivory and how these responses are altered when challenged by additional herbivore species is important for fully understanding herbivore-induced volatile production and the resulting effects on tritrophic interactions. In this study we examined the volatile response of tobacco plants to feeding by piercing-sucking western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, alone and in combination with the tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens, a chewing insect. We also examined the role of plant quality in influencing thrips’ feeding and ovipositional preferences using choice bioassays. Our data indicate that tobacco plants respond to thrips feeding by producing volatiles that differ both qualitatively and quantitatively from those elicited by H. virescens feeding alone. In choice bioassays, thrips demonstrated a significant feeding and ovipositional preference for undamaged plants over mechanically damaged plants, indicating that plant quality influences thrips’ behavior.