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The Cook Islands is a small country in the central South Pacific which French Polynesia to the east and Samoa to the west.

An international team of scientists undertook a field study on Aitutaki and Mitiaro of Belkin’s Bitingmidge, Culicoides belkini, locally known as “sandflies”. The biting midge has been a serious nuisance to residents and visitors on Aitutaki since the early 1960s, and on Mitiaro since about 1980.

Cook Islands biodiversity a case study