For the purpose of this work, diagnostic characters of adult female Diaspidini are: a few genera are pupillarial; body elongate to subcircular/oval/pyriform/turbinate; pygidium with marginal lobes and gland spines present, plates usually absent; median lobes rarely fully fused into a single lobe; marginal lobes normally bi-lobulate except for median pair; ducts two-barred, dorsal macroducts present, often arranged in segmental rows or series; preygidium without plates but sometimes with duct tubercles; abdominal disc pores, if present, perivulvar in distribution; stigmatic disc pores usually present; antennae usually each with two or more setae; on a wide range of hosts; world-wide distribution (Ben-Dov, 1990c; Takagi, 1969).
The definition of the tribe is used here in the broad sense (Ben-Dov, 1990c) and includes the tribes Diaspidini and Lepidosaphidini of Takagi, 1969. Ben-Dov, 1990c, discusses division of the tribe into lepidosaphidine, diaspidine, chionaspidine and fioriniine sections. Due to present uncertainties about relationships within the tribe, these distinctions are not used in this work. Members of the Diaspidini show great morphological variation, some having elongated scale covers that are narrower towards the anterior end (e.g. Lepidosaphes, Chionaspis and Aulacaspis), others having oval to circular scale covers (e.g. Diaspis). Some genera (e.g. Fiorinia) 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.