Anoplophora glabripennis (Motsch.) is a wood-boring beetle that is native to China. For a long time, it caused great losses to the economy and ecology of northwest China. Attractant are often used to control insects. The volatiles emitted from the host plant play an important role for insects in finding their target. To explore the mechanism of selectivity to different host plants, we investigated the response of Anoplophora glabripennis to four different host plants, which included Acer negundo L.,Acer mono Maxim.,Acer truncatum Bunge.and Acer platanoides L., and identified the compounds in the profiles of volatiles from these species. A “Y"-tube olfactometer was used to test the role of volatiles from host plants in host selection by Anoplophora glabripennis. The olfactory responses of Anoplophora glabripennis to different plant odors showed preference for certain host plants: Acer negundo, Acer mono and Acer truncatum. The attraction of Acer negundo and Acer mono were significantly different (p<0.05). The attraction of Acer negundo to the insect was stronger than to Acer mono. Acer platanoides neither attracted nor repelled the insect.Compounds in the profiles of volatiles from the above four species were identified and quantified by GC-MS equipped with a CP-4020 TCT device. The constituents of volatiles and the relative concentrations were different in the four host species. The amounts of ketones、alcohols and aldehydes in the four plants showed same order: Acer negundo<Acer mono<Acer truncatum.<Acer platanoides, While that of alkanes and esters was quiet different: Acer negundo>Acer mono>Acer truncatum>Acer platanoides. 1-Penten-3-ol,Ocimene and trans-Germanylacetone were repellent to Anoplophora glabripennis. 1-Penten-3-ol and trans-Geranylacetone were identified in Acer platanoides, and Ocimene was the most attractive to Anoplophora glabripennis among these species.The extent of feeding damage caused by Anoplophora glabripennis differed among four species. The order was Acer negundo>Acer mono>Acer truncatum>Acer platanoides. The epidermal hairs of the four host plants were examined. The results revealed that Acer negundo had few hairs, while the others had quiet a lot of epidermal hairs, which may be one of the reasons that the damaged on Acer negundo was less than that on Acer mono.It was concluded that the relative concentrations of the compounds of the volatile compounds played an important role in preference of Anoplophora glabripennis for certain hosts. The extent of damage was related to the physical characteristics of the host plants.