This species can also be identified by spirals of wax which are deposited by adults as they walk on leaves. These deposits occur on both upper and lower leaf surfaces. Eggs are often laid amongst these waxy deposits. The nymphs produce long, hairlike filaments of wax up to 2 in. This imparts a bearded appearance to affected leaves.
Giant whiteflies exhibit a strong tendency to feed in groups.
After adults emerge from their pupal case, they remain on the leaf they emerged from and settle to feed and lay eggs. They will often remain on these leaves clustered together, in large numbers, until death. Even if a leaf itself is dying and falling off the plant, many adult whiteflies will remain with the dying leaf, thus perishing with the leaf. The tendency of giant whitefly adults to remain on the leaf where they developed leads to a strongly clustered distribution. This clustering behavior allows the destruction of large numbers of whiteflies with the removal of relatively few leaves.