After they leave the cover, they wander for a period ranging from minutes to days, but usually a few hours. Female nymphs shed their skin twice as they grow and develop. Males have five stages, feeding and building armor only in the first two stages. The cast skins, called exuviae, are incorporated into the armor at the narrow end forming a dot. They remain under armor in one place throughout their lives to feed and reproduce.
Males are very different in appearance and behavior from females.
They are tiny, winged creatures with eyes and legs. When mature they emerge from the armor in the late afternoon, living only a few hours to mate. Because of the late emergence and short life of males, it is unlikely to find them in the field. Since female armored scales are not capable of wandering once they have settled and started feeding, long range dispersal happens by passive transport of infested plant material. Wind is an agent of dispersal and also one of mortality, since crawlers dislodged by wind may not land on suitable host plants.