Droughts are increasing in frequency and duration, which has important indirect consequences on herbivorous insects. However, some plants are more tolerant to drought than others, which should alter the insects' response to drought, an aspect that remains to be tested. Plant populations from more arid climates should be better able to cope with drought, which may drive less negative indirect effects of drought on herbivorous insects. Predicting the effect of drought on herbivorous insects is key to pest management. Using the aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer, 1776) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and 15 ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. (Brassicaceae), we evaluated whether plant responses to drought and climate of origin determine the effects of drought on insect feeding behaviour. Drought altered aphid probing behaviour, increasing intercellular exploratory activity without affecting phloem ingestion, regardless of the origin or functional traits of A. thaliana. Although A. thaliana ecotypes exhibited functional differences according to their climatic origin, their response to drought was highly consistent. This may explain the similar indirect effects of drought observed in M. persicae, regardless of the ecotypes on which they fed. Functional differences among plant ecotypes had some direct, albeit weak, effects on certain components of aphid behaviour. Overall, results indicate that the level of drought stress the plants are experiencing is a better determinant of aphid probing behaviour than the ecotypic differences driven by their different climates of origin. The consistent negative indirect effects of drought on M. persicae can have important consequences for the proliferation of pest species under climate change.