Competition from an invasive species has resulted in declining numbers of a resident US mosquito during the past few decades, but the resident looks to be evolving resistance to the invader's tactics.

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) arrived in and spread throughout the southeastern United States in the 1980s. It outcompetes the resident yellow-fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) through satyrization — the invasive males mate with resident females but prevent the females from producing offspring. Irka Bargielowski and her colleagues at the University of Florida in Vero Beach exposed A. aegypti females to A. albopictus males in cages and looked for evidence of insemination. Females from regions where the two species have lived together for the past 20 years were less likely to be inseminated than were those from areas that have not been invaded.

The results show a potential for the recovery of yellow-fever mosquito populations, the authors say.

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1219599110 (2013)