Mosquitoes have been detected in Iceland for the first time, a development scientists say could be linked to the effects of climate change.
Until now, Iceland and Antarctica were the only regions in the world considered free of mosquitoes. However, rising global temperatures are allowing mosquitoes and other insects to thrive in places where they previously could not survive.
Three mosquitoes of the species Culiseta annulata were found this month in Kiðafell, Kjós, about 30 kilometers north of Reykjavík, the Natural Science Institute of Iceland confirmed.
The discovery was made by Björn Hjaltason, an amateur naturalist, who noticed what he described as a “strange fly” caught on a red wine ribbon he used to attract moths. Hjaltason later sent two female and one male specimen to the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, where experts verified they were mosquitoes.
“I immediately realized it was something I had never seen before,” Hjaltason told the newspaper Morgunblaðið.
Matthías Alfreðsson, an entomologist at the institute, told national broadcaster RÚV that this marks the first time mosquitoes have been documented on Icelandic soil.
Although a single mosquito had once been discovered on a plane at Keflavík International Airport, Alfreðsson told CNN this is the first confirmed case of mosquitoes living “in the natural environment in Iceland.”
