[1] Chathamiids are unusual among insects in their invasion of the tide pool environment.

[2] The five described species[3] are distributed along the coasts of New Zealand, New South Wales, and the Chatham Islands.

[4] in 1925 Tillyard created the new sub-family Chathamiinae and described the species Chathamia brevipennis from the Chatham Islands.

He wrote that this caddisfly is remarkable for the reduced wings and enormous head of adults.

[1] The five species within this family were shown to be closely related using mtDNA sequence.