Crawlers may stay under the maternal armor several hours until outside conditions, especially temperature and humidity, are good. 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. The cast skins, called exuviae, are incorporated into the armor forming a dot near the center. 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. They do not feed, living only a few hours to mate. Because of the late emergence and short life of males, they are rarely found 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.