New study debunks myth of the ‘London Underground mosquito’

A type of mosquito that was believed to have evolved in the London Underground has a much older origin in the Mediterranean, according to a new genetic study.

The myth originated during World War II when Londoners sheltering from German warplanes in subway stations had to endure bites from mosquitoes. The pests were so well adapted to the city’s subterranean tunnels that, in the following decades, biologists started to suggest they might have evolved down there.

The mosquito in question is commonly known as the northern house mosquito, and it exists in two forms, identical in appearance but different in behavior. One is called Culex pipiens form pipiens, which only bites birds and lives in open air environments, and the other is called Culex pipiens form molestus — from the Latin word