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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.
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."
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.
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📷: Jens Büttner/picture alliance/Getty Images; Temujin Doran/CNN
