diff --git a/mpi/MPIFileIO.py b/mpi/MPIFileIO.py
index 462776c7..96ce6d99 100644
--- a/mpi/MPIFileIO.py
+++ b/mpi/MPIFileIO.py
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-from mpi4py import MPI
 from spt3g import core
 import random
 
@@ -117,15 +116,20 @@ def __call__(self, frame):
         return [] # Terminate processing on IO nodes
  
 @core.pipesegment
-def MPIIODistributor(pipe, mpicomm=MPI.COMM_WORLD, n_io=10, files=[]):
+def MPIIODistributor(pipe, mpicomm=None, n_io=10, files=[]):
     '''
-    Read files from disk using the first n_io processes in mpicomm, with
-    processing of frames in those files occurring on the other processes
-    in mpicomm. See documentation for MPIFileReader for the format of
-    the files argument and MPIFrameParallelizer for information on the
-    semantics of processing. Add this as the first module in your pipeline
-    in place of core.G3Reader.
+    Read files from disk using the first n_io processes in mpicomm (COMM_WORLD
+    by default), with processing of frames in those files occurring on the other
+    processes in mpicomm. See documentation for MPIFileReader for the format of
+    the files argument and MPIFrameParallelizer for information on the semantics
+    of processing. Add this as the first module in your pipeline in place of
+    core.G3Reader.
     '''
+    if mpicomm is None:
+        from mpi4py import MPI
+
+        mpicomm = MPI.COMM_WORLD
+
     subcomm = mpicomm.Split(mpicomm.rank < n_io, mpicomm.rank)
     if mpicomm.rank < n_io:
         pipe.Add(MPIFileReader, mpicomm=subcomm, files=files)