Aedes aegypti
Published 30 October 2026, 20:39
Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito, mosquito da dengue)
The mosquito that transmits dengue, Zika and chikungunya more efficiently than any other: it bites almost exclusively people, breeds in small man-made containers near houses, rests indoors and rarely strays more than 50 metres from where people live. It bites during the day, with peaks early in the morning and a few hours before sunset. In Portugal it is found only on Madeira, where it has been present since 2005.
Where you come across it. A trip to Madeira, talk about dengue, getting rid of standing water in the garden and on the balcony.
This is not the tiger mosquito: the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) lives on the mainland, while aegypti lives on Madeira. It was in this mosquito that dengue virus was found in Funchal in January 2025, the first such find in all the years of monitoring.