Scale of adult female circular and smooth, translucent yellow with yellow-brown insect visible through it, rather brittle: exuviae more or less central. Male scale smaller than female scale, oval, pale yellow, with acentric exuviae present.
Adult female, slide-mounted, 0.9-1.1 mm long, usually wider than long; prosoma strongly reniform and heavily sclerotised at maturity; postsoma less sclerotised than prosoma or membranous, often retracted between prosomal lobes. Median lobes usually larger than 2nd and 3rd lobes; 4th lobes represented by small to moderate-sized points. Plates all fringed. Thoracic tubercles small or absent. Perivulvar pores present in 2 groups, usually 1 or 2 at each postero-lateral position; prevulvar scleroses and apophyses absent.
Biology
Occurring on the leaves, twigs, and larger branches (McKenzie, 1937).
Structure
Scale of female smooth, circular, flat, yellow, hard, and brittle, 1.5 to 1.75 mm. in diameter. Scale of male not identified (McKenzie, 1937).
Economic Importance & Control
This is a polyphagous species, that has been recorded from the South Pacific, Far East, and Central America, but it was not considered a pest.
General Remarks
Description and illustration of adult female by McKenzie (1937), Balachowsky (1958b), Velasquez (1971), Chou (1985, 1986), Williams & Watson (1988) and by Colon-Ferrer & Medina-Gaud (1998).
Keys Ben-Dov 2006: 55-57 (female); Williams & Watson 1988: 35 (female); Velasquez 1971: 118 (female); Beardsley 1966: 509 (female); McKenzie 1946: 33 (female); McKenzie 1942b: 144-145 (female); McKenzie 1938: 17-18 (female); McKenzie 1937a: 178 (female); McKenzie 1937: 330 (female).
