Mesoptilus was named with two species (M. dolloi and M. sellardsi) by Lameere, without explicitly designating one as the type (whether "n. gen. n. sp." counts as type designation is ambiguous). In 1919, Handlirsch named Stenoneurella fayoliana and Pseudooedischia berthaudi for the same specimens. Later, Handlirsch (1937) implicitly treated M. sellardsi as the type because he stated that P. berthaudi was a synonym of M. sellardsi but recombined M. dolloi as Stenoneurella dolloi. This is not valid secondary designation, because it is not explicit (and fixation by elimination is not allowed). Carpenter (1992) treated M. dolloi as the type of Mesoptilus (he claimed by original designation, which I don't think is correct). Therefore, Mesoptilus sellardsi must be the senior name and must belong to Pseudooedischia.

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Mesoptilus sellardsi was named by Lameere (1917). Its type specimen is MNHN-F-R51350, an exoskeleton, and it is an impression. Its type locality is Commentry (MNHN later coll), which is in a Gzhelian lacustrine deltaic shale in the Commentry Shales Formation of France.

It was recombined as Pseudomesoptilus sellardsi by Guan et al. (2016); it was recombined as Pseudooedischia sellardsi by Clapham (2023).