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Climate change
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Mosquitoes appear in Iceland for the first time in history

Scientists believe that climate change causes Iceland to have warmer autumn and spring, which has facilitated the emergence and survival of these common species mosquitoes.

La comunidad científica cree que los otoños y primaveras más cálidos de los que disfruta la nación isleña, debido al cambio climático, ha favorecido la aparición y supervivencia de estas especies de mosquitos comunes.
Finding mosquitoes in Iceland for the first time in history. Photo: EFE

Three types of mosquitoes were identified in Iceland in Octoberfor the first time in its history, as Iceland had hitherto been one of the few countries in the world without insects.

The amateur Björn Hjaltason announced the discovery in the Facebook group 'Mosquitoes in Iceland' and on 16 October he saw in the municipality of Kjos (south) what appeared to be a 'strange looking fly', as reported on Monday by public television RUV.



After this, Hjaltason found two others, and gave them to the Institute of Natural History of Iceland for study. This institute initially confirmed the suspicion that they were mosquitoes.

Entomologist Matthias Alfredsson of the Institute of Natural History has explained to RUVthat  is a species of "culiseta annulata" capable of resisting very cold temperatures,  and that the mosquito is likely to reach Iceland to stay there.

Alfredsson has confirmed that this is the first time mosquitoes have been found there, although in the past several specimens were found in the fuselage of aircraft that landed in the country.

Scientists predicted that it was only a matter of time before the common mosquito species from Scandinavia or the British Isles arrived in Iceland.

Iceland, on the edge of the Arctic circle, was until now oneof the few habitable places on earth without mosquitoes, partly because of its geographical isolation and the absence of snakes.


In addition, the cold made it difficult for mosquitoes to lay eggs and develop like eggs. Now, as a result of climate change, scientists believe thatthe warmer autumn and spring   favors the reproduction and survival of mosquitoes.

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