News Animals

Subway mosquitoes evolved millennia ago in ancient Mediterranean cities

Researchers had once thought the mosquito evolved in the London Underground

close-up of a mostly brown mosquito against a white background.

A type of subway-dwelling northern house mosquito (one shown) was thought to originate in the London Underground. Its actual origins are much more ancient.

Lawrence Reeves/University of Florida

By Jake Buehler

Subterranean mosquitoes specialized for life in subways and sewers first evolved to pester humans millennia ago in Mediterranean civilizations.

A widely accepted story about the mosquitoes’ evolution put their origins in the London Underground train system in the last century or two.