Chitinase is responsible for chitin metabolism in a wide range of organisms. However, currentknowledge on insect chitinase and possible functions in relation to low temperature stress is very limited. Sixchitinase genes from cold treated desert beetle Microc}era puuctipeuuis obtained by RNA-seq technology werecharacterized, and their expression patterns in different tissues and in response to cold were investigated. Multiplesequence alignment was carried out using Clusta1W1.81 and Phylogenetic trees were generated by MEGAS. Theexpression patterns were studied by quantitative real-time PCR. These genes were assigned to three differentchitinase groups. Almost all of them were highly expressed in midgut, some are expressed in fat body or hindgut.-40C had stronger effect than 40C in inducing chitinase expression. Chitinase genes from M. puuctipeuuis exist in abig family. The tissue specific and cold inducible expressions suggest that the chitinases may have diversefunctions and play roles in insect cold adaptation.