Confirmed presence of aedes (rusticoidus) refiki Medschid, 1928 in a continental dry Mediterranean peri-urban environment in south-central Spain

[Background] The ‘snow-melt mosquito’ aedes (rusticoidus) refiki is a rare species with a wide distribution in Europe that is usually defined as an aggressive mosquito for mammals, including humans. During a mosquito survey in a peri-urban area in south-central mainland Spain, adult Ae. refiki females were captured and identified by morphological traits. The presence of this species of mosquito has never been molecularly confirmed under continental dry Mediterranean climatic influence with scarce number of days with snow on soil. The aim of this study was to confirm by amplification and sequencing of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region.[Results] We also successfully amplified and typed the species molecularly by COI and ITS2 regions. The peri-urban area where Ae. refiki was found contrasts with the reported cold, humid and snowy environments required by the species to breed.[Conclusions] This finding suggests that the species is already adapted to continental dry Mediterranean environments, questioning whether it is a truly stenotopic species of cold snowy environments.We acknowledge funding by the Spanish Ministry for the Science and Innovation (MCI) and the European Social Fund (ESF, EC) through projects E-RTA-2015–00002-C02-02 and CGL2017-89866-R. LCM acknowledges funding by MCI, ESF and the University of Castilla-La Mancha through project PEJ2018-003155-A. MF is recipient of postdoctoral perfection grants by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain (CD18/00091). This research was supported by CIBER -Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red- (CB 2021), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Unión Europea – NextGenerationEU.Peer reviewe