Rapid evolution: there's a species of mosquito that has evolved to live in metro systems.
> Some authors suggested that it adapted to human-made underground systems since the last century from local above-ground Culex pipiens,[3][4] but the more recent evidence suggests it is a southern mosquito variety related to C. pipiens that has adapted to the warm underground spaces of northern cities.[1]
> Behavioral evidence for this mosquito being a different species from C. pipiens comes from research by Kate Byrne and Richard Nichols. The species have very different behaviours,[3] are extremely difficult to mate,[4] and with different allele frequencies consistent with genetic drift during a founder event.[5] More specifically, this mosquito, C. p. f. molestus, breeds all-year round, is cold intolerant, and bites rats, mice, and humans, in contrast to the above-ground species, which is cold tolerant, hibernates in the winter, and bites only birds. When the two varieties were cross-bred, the eggs were infertile, suggesting reproductive isolation.
