The genus ''Mesosmittia'' is

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

, thus occurring in all biogeographical regions except for

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. Almost nothing or very little is known about its ecology, the larva of one species was described by Strenze (1950) as terrestrial, but adults can be collected using emergence traps set over rivulets. The genus was recently revised for the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeog ...

with descriptions of new species. The genus comprises: *'' M. acutistylus'' Sæther, recorded from United States and Mexico. *'' M. annae'' Andersen & Mendes, recorded from

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and Mexico. *'' M. flexuella'' (Edwards), recorded from all over

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. *'' M. glabra'' Andersen & Mendes, recorded from

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. *'' M. guanajensis'' Andersen & Mendes, recorded from Mexico. *'' M. hirta'' Andersen & Mendes, recorded from

, only the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

is known. *'' M. lobiga'' Sæther, recorded from United States and Mexico. *'' M. museophila'' Donato, recorded from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. *'' M. patrihortae'' Sæther, recorded from various locations in the

, United States, China, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. *'' M. prolixa'' Sæther, recorded from United States and Mexico. *'' M. tora'' Sæther, recorded from United States and Mexico. *'' M. truncata'' Sæther, recorded from

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

, only the

is known.

References

*Andersen, T.A. & Mendes, H.F. 2002. Neotropical and Mexican Mesosmittia Brundin, with description of four new species (Insecta, Diptera, Chironomidae). Spixiana 25: 141-155. *Brundin, L. 1956. Zur Systematik der Orthocladiinae (Dipt., Chironomidae). Rep. Inst. Freshwat. Res. Drottningholm 37: 5-185. *Donato, M. 2011. A new species of the genus ''Mesismittia'' Brundin, 1956 (Diptera: Chironomidae) from the Neotropics with a cladistic analysis of the genus using quantitative characters. Zootaxa 2836: 51-61. Chironomidae {{Chironomidae-stub