#culex — Public Fediverse posts

White-dotted mosquito (Culex restuans) that I reared from an egg raft. The scales that form the white dots on the scutum can fall off over time but in a newly-eclosed adult like this an ID is pretty easy. They feed almost exclusively on birds, but sometimes on mammals and thus are one route for transmission of West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis. I think that because of their fondness for birds they are largely up in the tree canopy and thus whole-yard (i.e., ground-level) fogging with pyrethroids is totally ineffective. #virus #wnv #disease #mosquitoes #culex #birds #nature #inaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359353002

Researchers document mosquito species in Puerto Rico that launches eggs aerially, one at a time, into the pools of water that collect between bracts of a plant. See figure 2. Seriously, see figure 2. So cool. #PuertoRico #mosquito #diptera #culex #oviposition #nature #heliconiaceae https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-15955-0

#Household #expenditure on control of #urban #mosquitoes #Aedes albopictus and #Culex pipiens in #Emilia-Romagna, Northern #Italy https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0012552

Control activities that lower the #mosquito #density in both private and public areas could reduce the use of household #insecticides in urban environments and the related costs, and the risk of spread of imported #arboviruses as well.

#Oropouche #Fever, #Cuba, May 2024, Emerg Infect Dis.: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/10/24-0900_article

Phylogenetic analyses showed that virus responsible for a May 2024 Oropouche fever #outbreak in Cuba was closely related to viruses from #Brazil in 2023. Pools of Ceratopogonidae spp. biting #midges and #Culex quinquefasciatus #mosquitoes were positive for Oropouche viral RNA. No cases were severe. Virus extension to new areas may increase case numbers and severity.

#Virulence and #transmission vary between #Usutu virus #lineages in #Culex pipiens https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0012295

Therefore, we found evidence of lineage-specific differences in vectorial capacity and virulence to both the vector and vertebrate host which lead to balanced propagation of both viral lineages.

A free-flying male #Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito in slow-motion (~20k images per second), enjoy!

#mosquitoes #highspeedcamera #slowmotion #insects #diptera #wings #flies