Rhizoglyphus robini Claparede (Acari: Astigmata: Acaridae) was reared in the laboratory on three diets under four temperature regimens in individual plexiglass cages. Immature survival was uniformly high on garlic and peanuts at 22°C and 27°C, but rather low for mites on garlic at 35°C or on filter paper at 27°C. The calculated threshold of development was at 11.8°C, and the thermal constant was 184.8 day-degrees. The sex ration was 1: 1. Adults kept at 27°C and offered peanuts or garlic deposited an average of 690 eggs/females and 400 eggs/females, respectively, during about six weeks. No eggs were usually proeiuced by females reared at 35°C or on filter paper. Males lived almost twice as long as females. Life tables were constructed from these data. The intrinsic rates of increase (rm) for mites offered peanuts or garlic at 27°C were 0.285 and 0.218, respectively. The compounded effect of various nutrition-affected factors, such as survival, body size and fecundity on changes in mite populations is discussed, as weil as the importance of defining diets for polyphagous mites in similar studies.