In order to explore the influence of biocrust with different coverage on infiltration process, biocrust from quaternary clay developed red soil (S type) and argillaceous shale developed soil (N type) were selected in the red soil hilly area of Xianning. And six coverage levels (bare land, 1%~20%, 20%~40%, 40%~60%, 60%~80% and 80%~100%) were set. The Mini disk infiltration instrument was used to determine the soil infiltration process and explore the factors affected the infiltration process, meanwhile three common models were used to simulate the infiltration process and the suitability of the model were compared. The results showed that:(1) Compared with bare soil, the development of two types of biocrust increased soil organic carbon, clay content, crust thickness and biomass, while decreased sand content. (2) The water infiltration characteristics of S-type soil decreased gradually with the increasing of biocrust coverage. The initial infiltration rate, stable infiltration rate, average infiltration rate and unsaturated water conductivity varied from 0.25 to 1.55, 0.13 to 0.91, 0.17 to 1.11 and 2.04 to 8.48 mm/min, respectively. In N-type soil, the soil water infiltration decreased with the increasing of coverage except for 40% to 60% (high gravel content). The initial infiltration rate, average infiltration rate and stable infiltration rate of 80% to 100% coverage decreased by 91.14%, 87.64% and 91.30%, respectively, compared with the bare soil. The presence of biocrust impeded the soil water infiltration. The RDA analysis showed that for S-type soil, biomass (54.30%) had the highest interpretation for its infiltration characteristics, while for N-type soil, they were coverage (39.30%) and gravel content (34.00%). (3) Among the three mainstream infiltration models, Horton model, Kostiakov model and Philip model, Horton model had the best fitting effect. The results could provide a useful reference for the study of water transport law of biological crusts in humid areas.