Older females are brown. The shape tends to vary according to position on the host plant.
Males are rare, but resemble tiny wasps or flies.
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. Biology Brown soft scale is cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical regions and in greenhouses in northern regions.