TY - JOUR T1 - First monitoring of mosquito species (Diptera: Culicidae) in the Caffarella Valley, Appia Antica Regional Park, Rome, Italy JF - Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association Y1 - 2017 A1 - Severini, Francesco A1 - Toma, Luciano A1 - Piccari, Fabrizio A1 - Romi, Roberto A1 - Di Luca, Marco SP - 29 EP - 32 KW - Appia Antica Regional Park KW - Italy KW - mosquito fauna KW - Rome AB - This study reports the results of the first entomological investigation focused on mosquitoes in Caffarella Valley, the inner part of Appia Antica Natural Reserve in Rome, carried out between 2012 and 2013. A total of 1173 mosquitoes were collected, with 9 species, belonging to 4 different genera, identified: Culex pipiens, Anopheles maculipennis sensu stricto (s.s.), Anopheles claviger, Culiseta annulata, Culiseta longiareolata, Aedes albopictus, Culex hortensis, Culex territans and Anopheles plumbeus. The monitoring of this area, bordering natural and urban environments, contributes to the knowledge on the culicid fauna of Rome. Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association 35: 29-32, 2017 VL - 35 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - First record of Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) (Diptera; Culicidae) from three islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy) JF - Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association Y1 - 2017 A1 - Toma, Luciano A1 - Toma, Federico A1 - Pampiglione, Guglielmo A1 - Goffredo, Maria A1 - Severini, Francesco A1 - Di Luco, Marco SP - 25 EP - 28 KW - Aedes albopictus KW - Asian tiger mosquito KW - islands KW - Italy KW - Mediterranean Basin. AB - Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus, an invasive mosquito originating from the Asian-Pacific region, is known as an important vector of several pathogens of public and veterinary health significance. In 1990, this mosquito was recorded for the first time in Italy (Port of Genova) and in about 20 years it has become established throughout the whole country. In this paper, we report for the first time the presence of Ae. albopictus on three small islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, namely Giglio, Ventotene and Ustica. Most probably, the maritime transport of goods and tourists during the summer is the major entry route of this mosquito species. Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association 35: 25-28, 2017 VL - 35 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Two new distribution records of Aedes (Rusticoidus) refiki Medschid, 1928 (Diptera: Culicidae) from Germany JF - Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association Y1 - 2017 A1 - Kuhlisch, Cornelius A1 - Kampen, Helge A1 - Walther, Doreen SP - 18 EP - 24 KW - Aedes refiki KW - Culicidae KW - ecology KW - Germany KW - identification AB - Although relatively rare, the culicid species Aedes refiki is considered widely distributed throughout Europe. It has also been described to occur over large parts of Germany, but reports are scarce and date back several decades. The last time Ae. refiki was documented for Germany was in 1980 when the species was found in the central northern part of the country. During larval sampling activities, Ae. refiki was rediscovered at two locations in the German federal state of Thuringia in spring 2016. The collection sites, method of species identification and species characteristics are described and discussed. Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association 35: 18-24, 2017 VL - 35 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Spatial distribution of immature stages of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) in flower pots in a Spanish cemetery and field evaluation of metallic copper as a control agent JF - Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association Y1 - 2017 A1 - Eritja, Roger A1 - Herreros, Eva SP - 13 EP - 17 KW - Aedes albopictus KW - cemetery KW - control KW - copper KW - distribution KW - larvae AB - Cemeteries have been shown to permit the development of the invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus in Southern Europe and this has facilitated its establishment on account of the huge quantity of flower pots which are adequate breeding sites for this container-adapted species. A control technique consisting of the use of pieces of metallic copper has been repeatedly proposed as a control solution for mosquito larvae in these pots. Although theoretically promising, this technique has not been used at an operative level, as there has been a lack of information on the best adapted copper formulation as well as on the mosquito larval population dynamics. The present study was planned to characterise the spatial larval distribution of Aedes albopictus in flower pots in a wall-niche burial system, and to test the cost-effectiveness of metallic copper application. We found that the preliminary distribution of larvae and pupae in the cemetery was not related to height from the ground but varied between buildings. During the 8 weeks of the trial, application of copper in the form of thin electric wire resulted in a season-accumulated reduction of 90.95% in the production of larvae and 97.06% of the pupae. Application costs and social interactions are discussed as other control methodologies would be more cost-efficient in this specific context. Copper application could be suitable for domestic environments, if application is performed adequately. Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association 35: 13-17, 2017 VL - 35 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - History of human-biting Culex pipiens in Sweden and Scandinavia JF - Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association Y1 - 2017 A1 - Lindström, Anders SP - 10 EP - 12 KW - Culex pipiens molestus KW - Culex pipiens s.l. KW - history KW - Scandinavia. KW - taxonomy AB - Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association 35: 10-12, 2017 VL - 35 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Species identification of Swedish mosquitoes through DNA metabarcoding JF - Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association Y1 - 2017 A1 - Lilja, Tobias A1 - Nylander, Johan A.A A1 - Troell, Karin A1 - Lindström, Anders SP - 1 EP - 9 KW - COI KW - Culicidae KW - metabarcoding KW - next generation sequencing KW - surveillance KW - vectors AB - Abstract: DNA-barcoding utilises a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene to identify most animal species. Using next generation sequencing (NGS), this method can be further developed into metabarcoding processes that allow the simultaneous identification of several species from a mixed sample. We created a database of COI sequences of 27 mosquito species collected in Sweden, and combined our data with 27 additional sequences from GenBank to cover the taxa recently documented in Sweden and to include possible invasive taxa. Comparisons show that COI metabarcoding reliably identifies 41 of 54 species and the remainder to species group. Using three independent primer pairs along the COI gene, we further developed this barcoding approach to simultaneously identify Swedish mosquitoes in communities using NGS and quantify relative abundance of each mosquito species in the sample, using bioinformatics methods. We tested the accuracy of the metabarcoding method using communities assembled from morphologically identified mosquitoes, revealing 80% positive identification rate and the estimates of population structure which reflects the input sample. We conclude that metabarcoding is useful as a high throughput identification technique and for the quantification of species. Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association 35: 1-9, 2017 VL - 35 ER -