Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time in what scientists say could be a sign of a rapidly warming climate.
Iceland was one of the only two places in the world that were considered insect-free zones, the other being the Antarctic. However, with a warming climate, mosquitoes and other insects are reaching places where they were not usually found before.
Three mosquitoes of the Culiseta annulata species were discovered this month in Kiðafell, Kjós, around 30km north of the capital Reykjavík, according to the Natural Science Institute of Iceland.
The find marked the first confirmed presence of mosquitoes in the wild in Iceland, where the freezing winters had previously kept them out.
The insects were first spotted by Björn Hjaltason, an amateur naturalist, who posted on a Facebook group for insect enthusiasts about the “strange fly” he had caught on a red wine ribbon used to attract moths.
He later sent the specimens – two females and one male – to the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, where they were confirmed to be mosquitoes.
“I could tell right away that this was something I had never seen before,” he told the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið.
Matthías Alfreðsson, an insect specialist at the institute told RÚV, the national broadcaster, that the mosquitoes were the first to be spotted on Icelandic soil.
While a single mosquito had once been detected on an aircraft at the Keflavík international airport, this was the first time mosquitoes had been recorded “in the natural environment in Iceland”, he told CNN.
Culiseta annulata is a common mosquito species, ranging from northern Africa to northern Siberia, and can tolerate subzero temperatures. Scientists are still unsure how the insects may have reached Iceland, though it is suspectes they came on a ship or in cargo containers.
While experts caution against directly linking the discovery to climate change, Iceland’s environment is warming far faster than the global average. The country is heating at four times the rate of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, with glaciers collapsing and new marine species such as mackerel arriving from warmer waters.
Mr Alfreðsson told CNN that even if this particular species could already tolerate Iceland’s cold, “warming temperatures are likely to enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland, if they arrive”.
Mosquitoes have been found increasingly farther north in recent years, including in the UK, where Tiger mosquitos, known for spreading dengue and Zika, have been detected.
