A species of mosquito that can spread several diseases to humans has been found for the first time on mainland Florida, researchers reported in November in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Aedes scapularis, a species commonly found in south Texas, multiple parts of South America, and the Caribbean, had last been seen in Florida in 1945, when specimens were collected in the Keys, but no one had reported observations in the state since then.
That changed in 2019, when the University of Florida’s Lawrence Reeves collected members of the species near Everglades National Park, NPR reports. He later followed up by collecting and examining mosquitoes from more sites in southern Florida, and found Ae. scapularis at multiple sites in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
“The central finding of the manuscript is that Aedes scapularis, a non-native mosquito and potential pathogen vector, is now established in the southern Florida Peninsula,” Reeves tells ...
