The armor is convex and is usually the same color as the bark. Females are yellowish or pink to purple, legless and wingless, but they have long, piercing-sucking mouthparts. They are cream colored and have brown eyes. Each crawler has six legs and two antennae. The armor of very young scales is circular with a pale edge.
Female nymphs resemble the adult except for smaller size.
The armor is also smaller. Male nymphs are elongate and their armor is oblong with the pale ring toward one end. Grape, soapberry, native hollies, mulberry, sweetgum, and buckthorn are also infested. Heavily infested maples are unthrifty. The bark becomes dark with molds and grainy from the armor of the scales.