Mosquitoes discovered in Iceland for the first time

Summary

Iceland’s frozen, inhospitable winters have long protected it from mosquitoes, but that may be changing. This week, scientists announced the discovery of three mosquitoes — marking the country’s first confirmed finding of these insects in the wild. Mosquitoes are found almost everywhere in the world, with the exception of Antarctica and, until very recently, Iceland, due to their extreme cold. The mosquitoes were discovered by Björn Hjaltason in Kiðafell, Kjós, in western Iceland about 20 miles north of the capital Reykjavík. “At dusk on October 16, I caught sight of a strange fly,” Hjaltason posted in a Facebook group about insects, according to reports in the Icelandic media. “I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly,” he added. He contacted Matthías Alfreðsson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, who drove out to Hjaltason’s house the next day. They captured three in total, two females and a male. Alfreðsson identified them as mosquitoes from the Culiseta annulata species. A single mosquito from a different species was discovered many years ago on an airplane at the country’s Keflavík International Airport, Alfreðsson told CNN, but this “is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland.” The Culiseta annulata species is native to a huge part of the Eastern Hemisphere, ranging from North Africa to northern Siberia. It appears well adapted to colder climates, primarily because adults can ride out the cold in sheltered places, Alfreðsson said. “This allows them to withstand long, harsh winters when temperatures drop below freezing.” It’s unclear how the mosquito arrived in Iceland, but theories include the possibility it came via ships or containers. Further monitoring will be needed in the spring to see whether the species can survive the winter and “truly become established in Iceland,” Alfreðsson said. Mosquitoes, which tend to thrive in warmth and humidity, are likely to be ...