Mosquitoes noticed in Iceland for first time, researcher says

Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the primary time, a researcher informed the AFP Monday. The volcanically energetic nation has lengthy been one of many world’s few mosquito-free locations. 

Three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes, two females and one male, had been sighted round 20 miles north of Reykjavik, the nation’s capital, in response to Matthías Alfreðsson, an entomologist on the Pure Science Institute of Iceland.

“They had been all collected from wine ropes… aimed toward attracting moths,” the researcher mentioned in an e mail, referring to a technique of including sugar to heated wine and dipping ropes or strips of cloth into the answer, that are then hung exterior to entice the sweet-toothed bugs.

The Icelandic Monitor, a neighborhood paper, reported that the bugs had been present in a residential yard. Björn Hjaltason mentioned he noticed the mosquitoes over a number of days. He captured the bugs and despatched them to Alfreðsson for identification, the outlet reported. 

“If three of them got here straight into my backyard, there have been in all probability extra,” Hjaltason informed the publication. 

Together with Antarctica, Iceland has lengthy been one of many uncommon locations on earth and not using a mosquito inhabitants. Iceland’s neighboring international locations, Norway, Scotland and Greenland, all are dwelling to mosquitoes, in response to Dwell Science. 

“It’s the first document of mosquitoes occurring within the pure setting in Iceland. A single Aedes nigripes specimen (arctic mosquito species) was collected a few years in the past from an airplane at Keflavik airport,” Alfredsson mentioned, including that “sadly, that specimen is misplaced.”

Their presence may “point out a latest introduction to the nation, probably by way of ships or containers,” he mentioned, however extra monitoring in spring could be vital to find out their additional unfold.

Rising temperatures, longer summers and milder winters, all introduced on by local weather change, create a extra favorable setting for mosquitoes to thrive. Iceland has taken main steps to struggle local weather change, together with opening a big carbon seize facility and establishing the planet’s first direct air seize plant. 

However Alfredsson didn’t imagine {that a} hotter local weather defined the invention. The species “seems to be effectively tailored to colder climates,” he mentioned, which “permits them to face up to lengthy, harsh winters when temperatures drop beneath freezing.”

He added that its “various breeding habitats … additional enhances its skill to persist in Iceland’s difficult setting.”