The mosquito unique to the London Underground that's especially blood thirsty

Deep in the depths of the London Underground lies critters that will suck your blood. That's right, the Tube has its own unique form of mosquito - and they're thought to be especially blood thirsty.

Formally known as Culex pipiens, the critter is known for how they feast on human blood and breeding in tight, confined spaces. They became notorious during the Second World War when Londoners sought shelter in the Underground tunnels from The Blitz.

These subterranean dwellers didn’t always exist underground; they were originally an above-ground insect which came from the Middle East. But as it migrated to colder parts of the world, it survived by living in cities, particularly their underground regions such as sewers.

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Here it developed new genetic characteristics, such as odour recognition, digestion and immunity, that would be useful in environments rich in organic waste.

It wasn’t just the genetics that changed though, the behaviour changed too as did their feeding habits as they can tucking into rodent blood.

The underground mosquitoes are isolated from other mosquitoes, and their habitat can be compared to an island. They can’t disperse and so they became more and more specialised and are also found in the likes of Paris, Tokyo, and New York.

But even more interesting is that these isolated mosquitoes are genetically distinct from each other depending on where they are.

So a mosquito on the Victoria line differs from its counterpart on the Bakerloo line.

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