Origins of urban human-biting mosquito shed light on uptick in West Nile virus spillover from birds to humans

Evolutionary biologists have long believed that the human-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens form molestus, evolved from the bird-biting form, Culex pipiens form pipiens, in subways and cellars in northern Europe over the past 200 years. It’s been held up as an example of a species’s ability to rapidly adapt to new environments and urbanization.

This article was originally published on this website.