Insect-borne viruses are critical threatens to agriculture and public health. Through long-tern co-evolution, vector insects have developed unique behavioral features that not only promote the efficiency and range of virus transmission, but also benefit their insect vectors. The feeding, host-seeking and oviposition, of insect vectors are all manipulated by viruses to increase viral transmission. This review focuses on virus-manipulated behavioral traits of insect vectors. We conclude that viruses indirectly manipulate vector behavior by consuming host nutrition, interacting with critical components of the phytohormone signaling pathway and reprogramming host defense systems. Insect-borne viruses also directly manipulate vector behavior by triggering insects’ innate immunity, including apoptosis and autophagy, or by interfering with an insect’s nervous system, such as by modulating neurotransmitter concentrations during viral dissemination within the insect’s hemolymph. It is worth noting that deciphering the behavioral traits of insect vectors and the neuro-mechanisms underlying virus acquisition, maintenance, and transmission, is necessary to predict viral epidemics, and could provide a basis for virus control. Future strategies of virus epidemic prevention should focus on the effects of virus-mediated insect immunity and nervous system modification, and aim to restrict virus transmission through the behavioral manipulation of insect vectors.