Hutchinson (1933) redescribed M. desertana from the type material deposited in Calcutta (NZSI), giving also male characters, but revealing nothing else about the type series. Later, Hutchinson (1940) stated that his earlier redesciption was incomplete and gave a new redescription based on topotypical specimens: 1 male and 5 female. In London (BMNH) a specimen evidently from the original type series is labelled as holotype, but this must be an error because Distant (1920) did not designate a holotype for this taxon (see note under M. scutellaris).
Extralimital subspecies: Micronecta desertana dravida Hutchinson, 1940, India, Nilgiri Hills.