• Narrow distribution. Not in Oceania. A scale of coconut, banana, mangosteen, and ornamentals. Since 2009, a serious outbreak in the Philippines.
• Sucking causes leaves to yellow, wilt and dry out, nuts have less 'meat' and 'milk' is sour. Heavy infestations kill seedlings and young palms.
• Eggs in crescents under the cover or 'armour'; 'crawlers' (nymphs) hatch and disperse, settle, moult; females produce yellow to brown transparent armour, up to 3 mm across. Males have wings, but short-lived.
• Spread by crawlers walking, or carried by wind, vehicles, animals, birds, on clothing, and trade in plants.
• Natural enemies: research into predators and parasitic wasps continues.
• IPM recommendations (Philippines): leaf pruning, insecticide trunk injections, and canopy sprays; biocontrol agents (e.g., a Comperiella species), and fertilizer to hasten recovery. [The Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (of Philippines) has given approval for growers to use a vegetable oil.]

Coconut scale, coconut false scale

Aspidiotus rigidus; previously Aspidiotus destructor rigidus.