Smallest known mite

What to remember

One adult Cochlodispus minimus measured 79 μm (0.079 mm) in body length, making it the smallest known mite.

Among the smallest organisms, size can be judged by volume, mass, height, length or genome size. For this mite, the measure is body length.

Knowledge of life is incomplete, so the smallest organism may not have been discovered yet. Across all of life, the smallest known organisms may be archaea around 200 nanometres long.