Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the primary time, a researcher instructed the AFP Monday. The volcanically active country 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 line with Matthías Alfreðsson, an entomologist on the Pure Science Institute of Iceland.
“They had been all collected from wine ropes… geared toward attracting moths,” the researcher stated in an e-mail, referring to a technique of including sugar to heated wine and dipping ropes or strips of material into the answer, that are then hung exterior to entice the sweet-toothed bugs.
The Icelandic Monitor, an area paper, reported that the bugs had been present in a residential yard. Björn Hjaltason stated he noticed the mosquitoes over a number of days. He captured the bugs and despatched them to Alfreðsson for identification, the outlet reported.
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“If three of them got here straight into my backyard, there have been most likely extra,” Hjaltason instructed the publication.
Together with Antarctica, Iceland has lengthy been one of many uncommon locations on earth with no mosquito inhabitants. Iceland’s neighboring international locations, Norway, Scotland and Greenland, all are dwelling to mosquitoes, in line with Reside Science.
“It’s the first report of mosquitoes occurring within the pure surroundings 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 stated, including that “sadly, that specimen is misplaced.”
Their presence may “point out a latest introduction to the nation, presumably through ships or containers,” he stated, however extra monitoring in spring could be crucial to find out their additional unfold.
Rising temperatures, longer summers and milder winters, all introduced on by climate change, create a extra favorable surroundings for mosquitoes to thrive. Iceland has taken main steps to struggle local weather change, together with opening a big carbon capture facility and establishing the planet’s first direct air capture 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 stated, which “permits them to face up to lengthy, harsh winters when temperatures drop beneath freezing.”
He added that its “numerous breeding habitats … additional enhances its potential to persist in Iceland’s difficult surroundings.”
