Feeding by female scales causes yellow spots on some fern varieties and on liriope. Males do not feed beyond the second stage of development. Little is known about the biology of fern scales specifically. Female scales lay their eggs under the armor. The female dies after the last egg is laid.
Tiny crawlers hatch from the eggs and eventually emerge from under the mother's armor.
The crawlers move about until they begin to feed by inserting their long, threadlike mouthparts into the leaf and sucking out nutrients. Eventually these insects molt into the adult stage. Female scales begin to secrete the adult armor at the rear of the second stage armor. Males emerge from their second stage armor as tiny, gnatlike insects that crawl or fly to female scales to mate. When populations become dense, females tend to lay male eggs so that heavily infested plants become conspicuously spotted by second stage male armor.