Adult : Small, soft bodied, creamish-greyish light brown, wingless.

Eggs (20-50) laid in clusters near food source; 6 nymphal stages; life span from egg to adult is 30-60 days.

Found in damp places, among old books and papers (hence the term "booklice") in homes, libraries, warehouses, grain & flour mills, dried milk processing plants, museums (herbaria, insect collections, manuscripts, cardboard boxes, furniture stuffed with flax, jute or hemp). They are not lice but instead feed on moulds, fungi, cereals, pollen and sometimes, dead insects. They can bite.