''Culiseta alaskaensis'', the Alaskan winter mosquito, is a

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

species of mosquito in the family

Culicidae Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

. It is found from

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

north, Alaska, including from the Upper

Cook Inlet Cook Inlet (; Sugpiaq language, Sugpiaq: ''Cungaaciq'') stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage, Alaska, Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding ...

region to the

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

. As with other '' Culiseta'' species, ''C. alaskaensis'' are cold-adapted and have appeared in the same habitats as '' Culiseta impatiens''. There are 35 known species of mosquito in Alaska. Although all species were found to be in low percentages, Aedes mosquitoes showed 0.57 per 1,000, the ''Culiseta'' mosquitoes averaged 7.91 per 1,000 mosquitoes as vectors for '' Plasmodium circumflexum''

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

. The short Alaskan summers disrupts the parasitic life cycle preventing the spreading of diseases. Thousands of mosquitoes were collected from

Anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

, Fairbanks, and Coldfoot over two summers of 2011 and 2012 by members of a research team from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

and a disease ecologist from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

Black-capped chickadees The black-capped chickadee (''Poecile atricapillus'') is a small, nonmigratory, North American passerine bird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a member of the Paridae family, also known as tits. It has a distinct black cap on i ...

(''Poecile atricapillus'') in Anchorage and Fairbanks were found to be infected with the

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

virus but none in Coldfoot. Currently there is no evidence of any

zoonosis A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a virus, bacterium, parasite, fungi, or prion) that can jump from a non-human vertebrate to a human. When ...

Habitat

Mosquito habitat includes almost anywhere there is standing or slow moving water. This includes ponds, sloughs, fresh or salt water marshes, containers, hollow trees, low depressions of land especially such as tundra, and moist areas of fields, bogs, and forests. All but adult mosquitoes, the eggs, "wrigglers", and "tumblers" are aquatic. Mosquito eggs can lie dormant for years. The insect survives below freezing temperatures because of two phases. Water is replaced by glycerol, acting as an antifreeze protecting the insect from bursting when frozen, and a

supercooling Supercooling, also known as undercooling, is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid below its freezing point without it becoming a solid. Per the established international definition, supercooling means ''‘cooling a substance be ...

process that lowers the body temperature below freezing, while the body fluids do not solidify.

Concentration

Mosquitoes are more active between dawn and dusk, from the second week in June to the last week in July. There can be heavy concentrations, and even ferocious swarms, when there is little wind, around ponds, or in tundra. In many northern regions, around winter breakup, there can be hordes of the large and vicious hibernators. The

willow ptarmigan The willow ptarmigan ( ); ''Lagopus lagopus'') or willow grouse is a bird in the grouse subfamily Tetraoninae of the pheasant family Phasianidae. It is also known colloquially as awebo bird. The willow ptarmigan breeds in birch and other forests ...

(''Lagopus lagopus'') is the official state bird of Alaska, but the unofficial title goes to the mosquito.

References

Insects described in 1904 Culicinae Taxa named by Ephraim Porter Felt {{Culicidae-stub