Recent outbreaks of Zika, chikungunya and dengue highlight the importance of better understanding the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes across multiple spatio-temporal scales. Traditional surveillance tools are limited by jurisdictional boundaries and cost constraints. Here we show how a scalable citizen science system can solve this problem by combining citizen scientists’ observations with expert validation and correcting for sampling effort. Our system provides accurate early warning information about the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) invasion in Spain, well beyond that available from traditional methods, and vital for public health services. It also provides estimates of tiger mosquito risk comparable to those from traditional methods but more directly related to the human–mosquito encounters that are relevant for epidemiological modelling and scalable enough to cover the entire country. These results illustrate how powerful public participation in science can be and suggest citizen science is positioned to revolutionize mosquito-borne disease surveillance worldwide.

Ten years have gone by since the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus was recorded for the first time in Spain. In this paper, all relevant published information about this vector in Spain for the period 2004–2014 is reviewed. The known distribution for 2014 is provided, including all historical records (published and unpublished data) and the results from samplings of the last year. The consequences on public health about the presence of the Asian tiger mosquito in Spain are also highlighted. Further, legal aspects and control plans related to the management and diseases transmitted by this invasive vector species are also discussed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-1262-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Insect phylogeny has recently been the focus of renewed interest as advances in sequencing techniques make it possible to rapidly generate large amounts of genomic or transcriptomic data for a species of interest. However, large numbers of markers are not sufficient to guarantee accurate phylogenetic reconstruction, and the choice of the model of sequence evolution as well as adequate taxonomic sampling are as important for phylogenomic studies as they are for single-gene phylogenies. Recently, the sequence of the genome of a strepsipteran has been published and used to place Strepsiptera as sister group to Coleoptera. However, this conclusion relied on a data set that did not include representatives of Neuropterida or of coleopteran lineages formerly proposed to be related to Strepsiptera. Furthermore, it did not use models that are robust against the long branch attraction artifact. Here we have sequenced the transcriptomes of seven key species to complete a data set comprising 36 species to study the higher level phylogeny of insects, with a particular focus on Neuropteroidea (Coleoptera, Strepsiptera, Neuropterida), especially on coleopteran taxa considered as potential close relatives of Strepsiptera. Using models robust against the long branch attraction artifact we find a highly resolved phylogeny that confirms the position of Strepsiptera as a sister group to Coleoptera, rather than as an internal clade of Coleoptera, and sheds new light onto the phylogeny of Neuropteroidea.

Summary 1.The spread of vector-borne diseases into new areas, commonly attributed to environmental change or increased trade and travel, could be exacerbated if novel vector species in newly invaded areas spread infection beyond the range of traditional vectors. 2. By analysing the differential degree of overlap between the environmental envelopes for bluetongue, a devastating livestock disease, and its traditional (Afro-Asian) and potential new (Palearctic) midge vectors, we have implicated the latter in the recent dramatic northward spread of this disease into Europe. 3. The traditional vector of bluetongue virus, the Afro-Asian midge Culicoides imicola , was found to occur in warm (annual mean 12-20 ° C), thermally stable locations that were dry in summer (< 400 mm precipitation). The Palearctic C. obsoletus and C. pulicaris complexes were both found to occur in cooler (down to 7 ° C annual mean), thermally more variable and wetter (up to 700 mm summer precipitation) locations. 4. Of 501 recorded outbreaks from the 1998-2004 bluetongue epidemic in southern Europe, 40% fall outside the climate envelope of C. imicola , but within the species' envelopes of the C. obsoletus and C. pulicaris complexes. 5. The distribution in multivariate environmental space of bluetongue virus is closer to that of the Palaearctic vectors than it is to that of C. imicola . This suggests that Palearctic vectors now play a substantial role in transmission and have facilitated the spread of bluetongue into cooler, wetter regions of Europe. 6. Synthesis and applications . The risk to Northern Europe now depends on how much of the distributions of the widespread, abundant Palearctic midge vectors (the C. obsoletus and C. pulicaris complexes) bluetongue can occupy, perhaps determined by thermal constraints on viral replication. This was highlighted by the sudden appearance in summer 2006 of bluetongue virus at latitudes of more than 50 ° North -approximately 6 ° further North than previous outbreaks in southern Europe. Future surveillance for bluetongue and for related Culicoides -borne pathogens should include studies to record and explain the distributional patterns of all potential Palearctic vector species.