We investigated how adults of willow leaf beetle Plagiodera versicolora find shoots with new leaves that were suitable food resources for them by focusing on shoot odor. Female and male beetles (starved and satiated) preferred the odor from intact shoots of Salix eriocarpa to clean air. Starved females preferred odor from shoots with leaves infested by conspecifics to odor from intact shoots. However, satiated females as well as starved and satiated males showed no significant discrimination between the two odors. Pooling of the preference data revealed that starved individuals of females and males preferred odor from infested shoots to an extent that was significantly different from satiated individuals, while the distribution of starved and satiated females was not significantly different from that of males. These olfactory responses would provide an explanation for the host plant finding behavior of this specialist herbivore in the field.