For the purpose of this work, diagnostic characters of adult female Aspidiotini are: a few genera are pupillarial; body usually broadly pyriform to circular, more elongate in pupillarial species; pygidium with marginal lobes and well-developed, glanduliferous plates present (gland spines absent); median lobes never fused into a single lobe; all lobes uni-lobulate; ducts normally one-barred, dorsal macroducts usually elongate and slender, may be filiform, often arranged in segmental rows or series; preygidium without plates or duct tubercles; abdominal disc pores, if present, perivulvar in distribution; stigmatic disc pores usually absent; antennae usually each with only one seta; intersegmental folds and crenulae absent; on a wide range of hosts; world-wide distribution (Ben-Dov, 1990c, Takagi, 1969).
Ben-Dov, 1990c, discusses division of the Aspidiotini into aspidiotine, selenaspidine, pseudaonidine, targioniine and aonidiine sections. Due to present uncertainties about relationships within the tribe, these distinctions are not used in this work. Compared to the Diaspidini, the Aspidiotini are fairly homogenous and show much less morphological variation (Takagi, 1969). A few genera in Aspidiotini are pupillarial, i.e. the adult female remains sheltered inside the sclerotized exuviae of the second instar, and has reduced pygidial structures, especially fewer pygidial ducts.