The genus ''Mesosmittia'' is
cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
, thus occurring in all
biogeographical
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, i ...
regions except for
Antarctica. 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 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 ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
and Mexico.
*''
M. flexuella'' (Edwards), recorded from all over
Europe.
*''
M. glabra'' Andersen & Mendes, recorded from
Ecuador.
*''
M. guanajensis'' Andersen & Mendes, recorded from Mexico.
*''
M. hirta'' Andersen & Mendes, recorded from
Ecuador, only the
holotype is known.
*''
M. lobiga''
Sæther, recorded from United States and Mexico.
*''
M. museophila'' Donato, recorded from
South America.
*''
M. patrihortae''
Sæther, recorded from various locations in the
Neotropics, United States, China, and
South Africa.
*''
M. prolixa''
Sæther, recorded from United States and Mexico.
*''
M. tora''
Sæther, recorded from United States and Mexico.
*''
M. truncata''
Sæther, recorded from
Panama, only the
holotype 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