The macrochelid mites (pictured right) are well understood, and are often extremely abundant in livestock and poultry manure.
Most commonly encountered are Macrocheles muscaedomesticae (Scopoli) and Glyptholaspis confusa Foa. Another species M. glaber (Müller) is sometimes common.
Glyptholaspis confusa is much larger than the others and often may be abundant in piled manure and bedding (such as from calf pens and horse stables). The species can be distinguished by the characteristics of the ventral plates.
Ventral plates of female adults of common manure-inhabiting machrochelid mites. Shown are the sternal plate (top, anterior), genital plate (middle), and ventri-anal (bottom posterior) of A) Macrocheles muscaedomesticae, B) Macrocheles glaber, and C) Glyptholaspis confusa.
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The macrochelids are brown and fast moving.
They prey on fly eggs and first-instar larvae and all species have essentially the same biology.
The life stages are egg, larva (6-legged), protonymph, deutonymph, and adult, with the last three stages having eight legs.
The adult female is phoretic on flies, i.e. it attaches to the flies (with its chelicerae) and is thereby transported to new areas.
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