Pontomyia Edwards, 1926

Anderson, R. Charles, Adam, M. Shiham & Cheng, Lanna, 2023, Marine insects of the Maldives (Heteroptera: Gerridae, Hermatobatidae and Veliidae; Diptera: Chironomidae) with notes on taxonomy, Indo-Pacific distribution, and ecology, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 71, pp. 478-490 : 488

Genus Pontomyia Edwards, 1926

The midge genus Pontomyia is exclusively marine, with three known species widely distributed along island shores of the Indo-Pacific and an un-assigned species from the Atlantic Ocean ( Huang et al., 2014). Pontomyia are unique marine midges with their larval life spent entirely underwater among submerged plants or algae. The males have modified wings but are completely flightless, while the females are larviform, completely wingless and almost entirely legless. Adults lack functional mouthparts and do not feed after emergence ( Huang & Cheng, 2011). They have one of the shortest known adult life spans, with males living from 1–3 hours and females dying shortly after mating and egg-laying ( Cheng & Collins, 1980).