diff --git a/mongoengine/document.py b/mongoengine/document.py
index b563f427..cae8343d 100644
--- a/mongoengine/document.py
+++ b/mongoengine/document.py
@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@ class Document(BaseDocument):
     dictionary. The value should be a list of field names or tuples of field
     names. Index direction may be specified by prefixing the field names with
     a **+** or **-** sign.
+
+    By default, _types will be added to the start of every index (that
+    doesn't contain a list) if allow_inheritence is True. This can be
+    disabled by either setting types to False on the specific index or
+    by setting index_types to False on the meta dictionary for the document.
     """
 
     __metaclass__ = TopLevelDocumentMetaclass
diff --git a/mongoengine/queryset.py b/mongoengine/queryset.py
index f542cc87..1dfe55af 100644
--- a/mongoengine/queryset.py
+++ b/mongoengine/queryset.py
@@ -418,8 +418,9 @@ class QuerySet(object):
                 use_types = False
 
         # If _types is being used, prepend it to every specified index
-        if (spec.get('types', True) and doc_cls._meta.get('allow_inheritance')
-                and use_types):
+        index_types = doc_cls._meta.get('index_types', True)
+        allow_inheritance = doc_cls._meta.get('allow_inheritance')
+        if spec.get('types', index_types) and allow_inheritance and use_types:
             index_list.insert(0, ('_types', 1))
 
         spec['fields'] = index_list
@@ -474,6 +475,7 @@ class QuerySet(object):
             background = self._document._meta.get('index_background', False)
             drop_dups = self._document._meta.get('index_drop_dups', False)
             index_opts = self._document._meta.get('index_options', {})
+            index_types = self._document._meta.get('index_types', True)
 
             # Ensure indexes created by uniqueness constraints
             for index in self._document._meta['unique_indexes']:
@@ -490,7 +492,7 @@ class QuerySet(object):
                         background=background, **opts)
 
             # If _types is being used (for polymorphism), it needs an index
-            if '_types' in self._query:
+            if index_types and '_types' in self._query:
                 self._collection.ensure_index('_types',
                     background=background, **index_opts)
 
diff --git a/tests/queryset.py b/tests/queryset.py
index 1947254b..37140f4a 100644
--- a/tests/queryset.py
+++ b/tests/queryset.py
@@ -1830,6 +1830,22 @@ class QuerySetTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertTrue([('_types', 1)] in info)
         self.assertTrue([('_types', 1), ('date', -1)] in info)
 
+    def test_dont_index_types(self):
+        """Ensure that index_types will, when disabled, prevent _types
+        being added to all indices.
+        """
+        class BlogPost(Document):
+            date = DateTimeField()
+            meta = {'index_types': False,
+                    'indexes': ['-date']}
+
+        # Indexes are lazy so use list() to perform query
+        list(BlogPost.objects)
+        info = BlogPost.objects._collection.index_information()
+        info = [value['key'] for key, value in info.iteritems()]
+        self.assertTrue([('_types', 1)] not in info)
+        self.assertTrue([('date', -1)] in info)
+
         BlogPost.drop_collection()
 
         class BlogPost(Document):