The citizen science project AtrapaelTigre.com, with which various Spanish entomologists collaborate and whose objective is to study and track the tiger mosquito in our country , launched the Tigatrappas mobile application in June 2014.
To date, more than 6,000 people have downloaded it, who have sent data from 1,600 possible points where this insect could be located. Thanks to them, the presence of the species has been discovered for the first time in Andalusia , as certified by a study published in the journal Anales de Biología . “Thanks to citizen participation, the presence of the mosquito was potentially discovered in a new autonomous community. Afterwards, the entomologists collaborating with the project began the sampling and verification in situ ”, indicates the team that leads the project, coordinated by the ICREA-Laboratory of Ecology of the Movement of the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CEAB -CSIC).
Until then, the researchers had not carried out regular samplings in Andalusia, so they suspect that the tiger mosquito must have been in that autonomous community for some time. This insect is a vector (transmitter) of diseases such as chikungunya and dengue fever , as well as being particularly annoying due to its diurnal habits and aggressively biting during the day . The first time it was detected in Spain was in San Cugat del Vallès (Catalonia), but experts are not sure of its original origin.
They think that it could have reached the south of the country by passive displacement or through human transport . To study this aspect, they have developed a new mission in the application called experiment #coche that encourages users of AtrapaelTigre.com to notify through the app if they find any specimen of the insect in a vehicle, to find out the distance it travels by this means.
