The shape tends to vary according to position on the host plant. Males look like tiny two-winged wasps or flies and are rare. Crawlers and young nymphs are yellow and almost flat in profile. Parasitized nymphs are dark brown to black and convex. Crawlers have well-developed legs and antennae and are quite active until settling.
Older nymphs are sessile.
B, Side view of female. D, Infested spider plant. Brown soft scale is cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical regions and in greenhouses in northern regions. In North America it occurs out of doors in the deep South, and north along the eastern seaboard to Virginia and as far north as southern Vancouver island on the west coast. Brown soft scale has been reported feeding on hundreds of different plants.