A type of mosquito that was believed to have evolved in the London Underground has a much older origin in the Mediterranean, according to a new genetic study. The myth originated during World War II when Londoners sheltering from German warplanes in subway stations had to endure bites from mosquitoes. The pests were so well adapted to the city’s subterranean tunnels that, in the following decades, biologists started to suggest they might have evolved down there. The mosquito in question is