The biology and behavior of M. muscaedomesticae is the best understood.
The females are diploid and the males are haploid (arrhenotoky). Thus fertilized females produce female offspring - consequently females are usually more abundant in manure than males.
The first pair of legs is not used for walking, but waved about in the air like antennae and used to detect the environment.
Sensilla on the tarsi of the first pair of legs are the principal olfactory organs. Females can detect the odour of manure and flies.
As manure dries, its attractiveness to the mite declines, while visiting flies remain more or less constant in their attractiveness.
Once the manure becomes less attractive than a visiting fly, the mite will grasp the fly and be carried off.
When the fly later alights on an area of fresh manure, the mite is attracted to it, and detaches itself from the fly.
Attachment of the mite to the fly is with the chelicerae and normally no feeding occurs - this is a case of phoresy, not parasitism.
Macrocheles muscaedomesticae in the protonymph, deutonymph and adult stages feed on fly eggs and first-instar larvae.
Alternate foods are nematodes and acarid mites, both of which are very common in manure.
Adult mites prefer to feed on fly eggs, especially those of the house fly.
The conditions determine the number of eggs and/or larvae destroyed, with up to 20 eggs consumed per mite per day.
Substantial reductions in fly numbers in livestock and poultry manure by these mites have been demonstrated.
The life cycle from egg to adult requires only 2–3 days under favourable conditions.
