Iceland just found its first mosquitoes

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 one of the few real winners as the planet heats up.

As climate change accelerates, bringing more heat, storms and floods, the range of these disease-carrying insects is increasing, according to a growing body of research. Rising temperatures also allow mosquitoes to grow faster and live longer.

Iceland is no stranger to the impacts of climate change and has experienced record-breaking heat. In May, temperatures in parts of the country were more than 18 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. This extreme heat was made 40 times more likely by climate change, an analysis from the World Weather Attribution network found.

But there are a still a lot of unknowns about how mosquitoes are behaving as the world warms and experts urge caution when it comes to linking Iceland’s discovery with global warming.

Alfreðsson said he’s not sure climate change played a role in the discovery but “warming temperatures are likely to enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland, if they arrive.”

Iceland may have been hospitable to these insects even in the absence of climate change, said Colin J. Carlson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University School of Public Health. Mosquitoes have been found quite far north into Scandinavia, he told CNN.

“Climate change may have made this more likely, but I’m not convinced it’s a clear, direct impact,” Carlson said. “The truth is, we just don’t know a lot about endemic mosquito range shifts that are already happening.”

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