Editing Mosquito (section)

=== Cosmopolitan ===

Mosquitoes have a [[cosmopolitan distribution]], occurring in every land region except Antarctica and a few islands with polar or [[subpolar climate]]s, such as [[Iceland]], which is essentially free of mosquitoes.<ref name="Visindavefur.hi.is">{{cite web |url=http://visindavefur.hi.is/svar.php?id=2166 |title=Vísindavefurinn: Af hverju lifa ekki moskítóflugur á Íslandi, fyrst þær geta lifað báðum megin á Grænlandi? |language=is |publisher=Visindavefur.hi.is |access-date=2013-10-15 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130802162121/http://visindavefur.hi.is/svar.php?id=2166 |archive-date=2013-08-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This absence is probably caused by Iceland's climate. Its weather is unpredictable, freezing but often warming suddenly in mid-winter, making mosquitoes emerge from pupae in diapause, and then freezing again before they can complete their life cycle.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Peterson |first=B.V. |year=1977 |journal=The Canadian Entomologist |volume=109 |issue=3 |pages=449–472 |doi=10.4039/Ent109449-3 |title=The Black Flies of Iceland (Diptera: Simuliidae) |s2cid=86752961 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gislason |first1=G.M. |author2=Gardarsson A. |year=1988 |title=Long term studies on ''Simulium vittatum'' Zett. (Diptera: Simuliidae) in the River Laxá, North Iceland, with particular reference to different methods used in assessing population changes |journal=Verb. Int. Ver. Limnol |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=2179–2188 |doi=10.1080/03680770.1987.11899871 |bibcode=1988SILP...23.2179G }}</ref>

Eggs of [[Temperate climate|temperate zone]] mosquitoes are more tolerant of cold than the eggs of species indigenous to warmer regions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hawley |first1=W. A. |last2=Pumpuni |first2=C. B. |last3=Brady |first3=R. H. |last4=Craig |first4=G. B. |title=Overwintering survival of ''Aedes albopictus'' (Diptera: Culicidae) eggs in Indiana |journal=Journal of Medical Entomology |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=122–129 |date=March 1989 |pmid=2709388 |doi=10.1093/jmedent/26.2.122 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hanson |first1=S.M. |last2=Craig |first2=G.B. |title=''Aedes albopictus'' (Diptera: Culicidae) eggs: field survivorship during northern Indiana winters |journal=Journal of Medical Entomology |volume=32 |issue=5 |pages=599–604 |date=September 1995 |pmid=7473614 |doi=10.1093/jmedent/32.5.599 }}</ref> Many can tolerate subzero temperatures, while adults of some species can survive winter by sheltering in microhabitats such as buildings or hollow trees.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Romi |first1=Roberto |last2=Severini |first2=Francesco |last3=Toma |first3=Luciano |title=Cold acclimation and overwintering of female ''Aedes albopictus'' in Roma |journal=Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=149–151 |date=March 2006 |pmid=16646341 |doi=10.2987/8756-971X(2006)22[149:CAAOOF]2.0.CO;2 |s2cid=41129725 }}</ref> In warm and humid tropical regions, some mosquito species are active for the entire year, but in temperate and cold regions they hibernate or enter [[diapause]]. [[Arctic]] or subarctic mosquitoes, like some other arctic midges in families such as [[Simuliidae]] and [[Ceratopogonidae]] may be active for only a few weeks annually as melt-water pools form on the permafrost. During that time, though, they emerge in huge numbers in some regions; a swarm may take up to 300 ml of blood per day from each animal in a [[caribou]] herd.<ref name=n1>{{cite journal |last=Fang |first=J. |title=Ecology: A world without mosquitoes |journal=Nature |volume=466 |issue=7305 |pages=432–434 |date=July 2010 |pmid=20651669 |doi=10.1038/466432a |doi-access=free }}</ref>