iNaturalist community observations provide valuable data on human-mosquito encounters

Area of Science:

• Entomology
• Ecology
• Public Health

Background:

• Mosquitoes transmit diseases, necessitating effective surveillance for public and animal health.
• Invasive mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases pose a growing threat to the UK and Ireland.
• Sustainable, low-cost monitoring tools are crucial for tracking mosquito populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate iNaturalist as a passive surveillance tool for mosquitoes in the UK and Ireland.
• To assess the representativeness of citizen science data against existing mosquito monitoring datasets.
• To understand mosquito distribution, diversity, and human interactions through iNaturalist observations.

Main Methods:

• Established the 'Mozzie Monitors UK & Ireland' iNaturalist project to collect mosquito observations.
• Compared iNaturalist data with established UK mosquito surveillance datasets for seasonal and distribution trends.
• Analyzed species composition, urban associations, and image data for insights into mosquito behavior.

Main Results:

• Collected 738 mosquito observations, primarily between 2020-2022.
• Observed mosquito records predominantly in urban areas.
• Identified *Culex pipiens* and *Culiseta annulata* as common species, more frequent in urban settings.
• Found iNaturalist data aligned with existing datasets regarding species composition, seasonality, and distribution.

Conclusions:

• iNaturalist serves as a valuable, cost-effective tool for passive mosquito surveillance.
• The platform accurately reflects key mosquito surveillance data, including species composition and distribution.
• Citizen science data from iNaturalist can aid in monitoring human-mosquito interactions and species of concern.