Copra mite

Lepidoglyphus destructor, one of the more common mites associated with stored food, is representative of this genus. This species is cosmopolitan in distribution. It has been found on many kinds of stored foods and on fungi.

These food mites are tiny and barely visible, varying from 0.3 to 0.6 mm. Using strong magnification, one can notice that the body has no incision between the 2nd and the 3rd leg pairs. The males possess no suction pads; in the females, a short copulation pipe is visible. For both sexes, the body bristles are very long and feathery. Unlike Gylcyphagus domesticus, these mites have an inserted, elongated, and pointed scale on the end segment of the legs. Nevertheless, the scale is difficult to recognise if it is not spread out. Their eggs are quite large, compared with the size of the adult.