Ceramics are widely used as plasma resistant materials in semiconductor industries. However, the plasma erosion resistance has not been properly evaluated in terms of microstructural changes during the exposure to plasma. In this study, microstructure developments of $Al_2O_3$ were investigated under the fluorine plasma conditions. In polycrystalline alumina, uniform erosion throughout the specimen as well as spatially distributed local erosion were observed. Local erosion was much more severe in lower purity alumina. In contrast to the polycrystalline alumina, only uniform erosion was observed in single crystalline sapphire. These specimens, however, had practically the same erosion depth, which results in the incorrectly similar plasma resistance. This implies that the plasma erosion resistance of ceramics should be evaluated in terms of the microstructural changes, as well as the conventionally accepted erosion depth.