Distribution and hybridization of Culex pipiens forms in Greece during the West Nile virus outbreak of 2010

The role of Culex pipiens mosquitoes in transmission of West Nile virus in Europe

“…pipiens biotypes and hybrids in aboveground habitats throughout Europe. These results are in line with previous findings from The Netherlands , Germany (Rudolf et al 2013), Austria (Zittra et al 2016), Portugal (Gomes et al 2009, Osório et al 2014), Italy (Di Luca et al 2016, and Greece (Gomes et al 2013a). There was a clear gradient of decreasing biotype pipiens and increasing biotype molestus proportions from northern to southern latitudes.…”

“…Hybrids of the two biotypes were described from The Netherlands in 2010, but they were exclusively reported from the underground transit system of Amsterdam (Reusken et al 2010a). In the present nationwide study, we found that biotypes pipiens and molestus both occur aboveground (in mosquito traps, as well as inside houses of Dutch citizens), as is the case in southern European countries, with comparable hybridization rates ranging between 5-15 % (Amraoui et al 2012, Gomes et al 2013a, Gomes et al 2009, Osório et al 2014). …”

“…In southern Europe, hybridization readily occurs because both biotypes inhabit the same aboveground habitats (Gomes et al 2013a, Gomes et al 2009). However, the results of this thesis show that this paradigm needs to be revised because both biotype pipiens and molestus were found to occur sympatrically in aboveground locations in The Netherlands (chapters 2 and 3).…”

“…pipiens and their hybrids result in different vectorial capacity for WNV. Thus far, in-depth studies that differentiated between the biotypes were done at country level (Di Luca et al 2016, Gomes et al 2013a, Osório et al 2014, Rudolf et al 2013, Zittra et al 2016. Few of these studies systematically compared biotype ratios among different habitat types (Di Luca et al 2016, Osório et al 2014, Zittra et al 2016).…”

Seasonality of Post-capture Longevity in a Medically-Important Mosquito (Culex pipiens)

“…pipiens pipiens is eurygamous (copulation takes place in open spaces), anautogenous (blood feeding is necessary for eggs development), heterodynamic (forgoes winter diapause), and rather ornithophilic (prefers to feed on birds; Vinogradova, 2000). The two biotypes co-occur in Grecce and hybridization between them has been reported (Gomes et al, 2013). Temperature and relative humidity data were collected throughout the experimental period from the sampling shelter using a HOBO R data logger.…”