When the adult male emerges from under its scale after four moults, it has limbs and a single pair of wings and is able to fly rather weakly; it lives for only a few hours, and its sole purpose is to find and mate with a female.

[2][3] The adult female scale insect is viviparous, the eggs hatching internally, and produces up to 150 young at the rate of two or three per day.

[3] Yellow scale has a widespread distribution in Asia, the Mediterranean area, Africa and South America, and is a serious pest of citrus in the southern United States, China, Japan, India, Iran and Australia.

[4] Heavy infestations of the insect can cause yellowing of the leaves, leaf fall, dieback of twigs and branches, or even tree death.

In California, many populations of both red and yellow scale have become resistant to some of the most commonly used pesticides, but biological control using chalcid wasp parasitoids is very effective; Aphytis melinus and Aphytis lingnanensis are used in mild coastal areas and Comperiella bifasciata in inland areas such as the San Joaquin Valley.