The body's shape varies from round till oval and is between 2.3 and 3.0 millimetres long.

There are seventeen pairs of wax-producing glands which produce short wax filaments which conceal the body.

[1] The species is ovoviviparous, and the female gives birth to live young, typically two or three hundred, after which she dies.

The first stage larvae are known as "crawlers" and disperse, sometimes being conveyed by the wind to new host plants.

It has been found in Hawaii, the Pacific, Central and South America, Australia and Africa.