There’s a new invasive mosquito species in Florida. Will this one spread disease?

An invasive mosquito with a curved mouth and a striped body is the latest addition to a growing list of non-native mosquito species bridging the gap between the tropics and Florida.

The insect is known only by its scientific name, a moniker you’d expect from a comic book: Culex lactator.

This new species resides in two Southwest Florida counties and Miami-Dade, and is the sixth newly invasive mosquito to be detected in Florida in the past five years, according to Lawrence Reeves, a mosquito biologist at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“The most obvious concern is the potential for this mosquito to be involved in the transmission of viruses,” said Reeves, the lead author of a new study published Wednesday in the bimonthly, peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Entomology.

Scientists aren’t sure yet whether this particular species will help spread diseases to humans, but they do know it comes from the same group of mosquitoes that can transmit West Nile and St. Louis encephalitis viruses.

Another concern: Researchers in May 2020 discovered a Culex lactator mosquito in Florida City that had fed on the blood of a warbler bird. Viruses like West Nile and encephalitis commonly spread among bird populations, Reeves said.

“That’s probably something that we don’t want to see,” Reeves said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. “Public health-wise, the viruses that we’re most worried about — that this mosquito would serve as a vector for — are really viruses of birds.”

Under the radar

After a long day of sweltering fieldwork in Miami-Dade County, Reeves and his team of entomologists drove 2 miles up the road for their highly anticipated reward: milkshakes.

One of their prime bug-catching spots is just south of the Florida-famous Robert Is Here fruit stand in Homestead. The routine is always the same after a day of trapping mosquitoes in the summer heat: Kick back in the car’s A/C, throw on a podcast and venture to claim their sweet treat.

It was May 2018, and Reeves ordered a dragonfruit shake.

Months would pass before Reeves would realize he had caught the first known Culex lactator specimen in Florida that day.

“It wasn’t like this immediate lightbulb moment,” Reeves said. That fall, when he looked back at the mosquitoes he caught over the summer, he realized one of them had an odd shape. “Wonky,” as Reeves describes it.

This insect had a slightly curved proboscis, or the elongated mouth mosquitoes use to feed. Its proportions also seemed off.

“I was like, ‘This guy looks a little bit weird,’” Reeves said.

Sure enough, when the DNA results returned and they didn’t match any of the known Florida species, his suspicious were confirmed: They were dealing with a new mosquito.

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Soon, the university’s entomologists, including associate professor Nathan Burkett-Cadena and doctoral student Kristin Sloyer, would determine the species was established in Miami-Dade County.

Slightly concerning, but not necessarily a problem if it was an isolated population, they thought.

It wasn’t until last year, when the mosquito control districts of Lee and Collier counties reached out to Reeves for help identifying an unknown species, when he discovered the mosquito was more spread out than originally thought.

“That definitely picked it up on our list of priorities,” he said. “The next thought was: This is potentially a bigger problem than we expected.”

Could this mosquito end up in the Tampa Bay area?

“Absolutely it could end up in Tampa Bay,” Reeves said. “It’s already not too far off. Worst-case scenario is it’s already there, best case is it moves slower north to get there — or winter there is too cold for it to thrive.”

Where did it come from?

The Culex lactator species originates in Central America and northern South America, according to researchers. It was first discovered in the early 1900s, though it’s not clear how it earned the name, Reeves said.

In Florida, the species is currently found south and west of Naples, west of Fort Myers and also in the Homestead area, though it may also be in other areas around the state, Reeves said. It’s physically similar to mosquito species already known in Florida. To the untrained eye, it can look like other, more common mosquito species.

This new species likes to lay its eggs in moist environments, so removing standing water or pooling water after a rain are important steps for stopping their spread across Florida, Reeves said.

Florida is in close proximity to the warmer tropics, a potpourri of buzzing mosquitoes. There are about 90 species in Florida, and 17 of those are invasive.

While there’s no “smoking gun” yet for how they arrived in Florida, one theory is that the animals got swept up in higher-altitude wind currents where they can travel large distances. The animal was found in a mostly dry area in Florida, so it seems less likely that their eggs were introduced, Reeves said.

While mosquitoes are generally some of the most well-studied insects, there are large research gaps. Species from tropical forests are plentiful but typically understudied, according to the University of Florida.

“Introductions of new mosquito species like this are concerning because many of our greatest mosquito-related challenges are the result of non-native mosquitoes,” Reeves said. “In a case like this, it’s difficult to anticipate what to expect when we know so little about a mosquito species.”

This latest species is likely to spread into areas where it can thrive, especially as global temperatures rise with climate change, according to University of Florida researchers.

“We can expect that with warmer winters and warmer temperatures, we’re creating a Florida that is more hospitable to introductions of non-native mosquitoes,” Reeves said.