It feeds on the leaves and shoots of the broad-leaved paper bark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, which is endemic to Australia where it grows on seasonally inundated plains and swampland, and was introduced into Florida in order to help drain flooded portions of the Everglades.

The eggs are yellow and one millimetre long when laid but the female usually covers them in a protective secretion which dries to form a hard, dark coloured casing.

[3] The eggs hatch in about a week and the larvae moult four times, eventually reaching about 1.4 millimetres long.

As they develop they become covered with a translucent yellowish oily secretion which turns black as faecal material adheres to it.

The larva ceases to feed and crawls or falls to the ground and finds a suitable underground site in which to pupate.

Sites with saturated soils or permanently flooded areas did not support colonisation when the species was introduced in Florida in 1997.

In Florida it has no host-specific natural enemies and the introduction of certain insect species from Australia to help control it is being investigated.