The history of agricultural terraces remains poorly understood due to problems in dating their construction and use. This has hampered broader research on their significance, limiting knowledge of past agricultural practices and the long-term investment choices of rural communities. The authors apply OSL profiling and dating to the sediments associated with agricultural terraces across the Mediterranean region to date their construction and use. Results from five widely dispersed case studies reveal that although many terraces were used in the first millennium AD, the most intensive episodes of terrace-building occurred during the later Middle Ages (c. AD 1100–1600). This innovative approach provides the first large-scale evidence for both the longevity and medieval intensification of Mediterranean terraces.

Stormwater catch basins form part of artificial drainage systems in urban areas and can provide larval habitat for mosquito vector species of West Nile virus (WNv), such as Culex pipiens Linnaeus (Diptera: Culicidae). We evaluated the impact of management techniques and targeted applications of larvicide on larval populations of this potential WNv mosquito vector species in catch basins from the Lower Mainland of Vancouver and on Vancouver Island of British Columbia, Canada. A mixed effects logistic regression model described the relationship between larval presence and larvicide treatment while controlling for other parameters. Parameter estimates showed that larvicide treatment reduced the odds of larvae presence by a factor of ∼7.23. The model also revealed relationships between larval presence and water temperature and adjacent land use but larvicide treatment consistently reduced the presence of larvae regardless of these other factors. This knowledge can now be used to prioritise and target control efforts to most efficiently reduce WNv mosquito vector populations, and most effectively reduce the risk of WNv transmission to humans. A similar research strategy could be applied to emerging threats from other potential mosquito vectors of disease around the world, to help lower the incidence of mosquito-borne disease.

Using a Center for Disease Control light trap Culiseta particeps (Adams) (Diptera: Culicidae) was collected on four occasions during the spring and summer of 2011. In addition, on 15 April 2011 a pupa was collected from a semi-permanent pool, reared to the adult stage and identified as C. particeps. The collection and identification of these mosquitoes marks the first time C. particeps has been reported in Canada. As there have been specimens identified in both the southwest coast of Alaska, United States of America and northwestern Washington State, United States of America, it is unsurprising that British Columbia, Canada is part of the natural habitat range of C. particeps.