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The Western flower thrips Franklfniella occfdentalfs Pergande is the most common thrips on vegetable crops on the island of Crete. Though it is polyphagous, preference to some of the cultures has been observed. The aim of the study was to compare the development time from egg to adult and population growth of the thrips on several vegetable host plants: cucumber, tomato, sweet pepper, eggplant and French beans. The trials for duration of development were carried out at laboratory at 29°C on detached leaves isolated in Petri dishes, and for the population growth – at experimental glasshouse. The results showed that F. occfdentalis developed most rapidly when feeding on eggplant leaves – 11 days, followed by cucumber – 11,6 days, and for tomato, bean and pepper – 12 days. The actively feeding stages – larvae 1 st and 2 nd instars developed faster on the leaves of eggplant which indicates that eggplant was the most suitable host for F. occfdentalis. The growth of the population density of F. occidentalis was more significant on eggplant, cucumber, tomato and French beans. On the leaves of pepper the population density retain very low levels until the desiccation of the plants. The maximum of the population density of F. occidentalis was observed on the eight week after infestation with thrips. The population density of the thrips on eggplant reached more than 16-fold increase compared to the initial density, on tomato and cucumber – about 14-fold increase, on French beans – 12-fold, on melon – 8-fold.