The western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis, is a key invasive pest of vegetables, fruits and ornamental crops in China. It can cause damage by direct feeding and transmitting plant viruses, such as tospovirus, and the latter often causes greater economic losses. Temperature is one of the most important abiotic factors that affect the development and reproduction of this pest. Geographical distribution and overwintering survival of the thrips mainly depend on its tolerance to low temperature in the winter. The present study examined the effects of rapid cold hardening at larval and adult stages on survival, development, and reproduction of F. occidentalis. Morality of both larvae and adults increased with the decrease of temperature, but the larvae were more sensitive to cold than adults. When larvae and adults of F. occidentalis were transferred from the normal rearing conditions at (26±1)℃, to cold temperatures at -13℃ (for larvae) or -13.5℃ (for adults) for 2 h, survivorship rate was only 25% for larvae and 27% for the adults. These two temperatures could be defined as the discriminating temperatures for the two insect stages, respectively. Survival rates of the thrips that were pretreated at 0℃ or 5℃ for 2h before exposure to their discriminating temperatures increased significantly. The response of adult males and females was similar. Maximum increase in survivorships to the cold temperatures was achieved by pretreating larvae or adults at 0℃ for 2hs, which resulted in a survivorship rate of 46%,54%, 49% for larvae, adult females and males, respectively. When cold exposures occurred at the larval stage, there were no differences in development time, longevity and reproduction duration of enclosed adults relative to the non-treated control. However the number of eggs laid of the adults derived from cold-treated larvae was significantly less than that of the non-treated thrips. When adult thrips were exposed to the cold temperatures, the longevity, fecundity and reproduction duration all decreased significantly compared to the non-cold treated control. Results of the current study support the hypothesis that a trade-off exists between the rapid cold hardening and fitness in insect. In addition, data generated from this study may also provide useful information in determination of potential distribution of the thrips and development of management strategies for this invasive pest.