[citation needed] Historically, Culicoides imicola has been found in Africa and southwestern Asia, but their distribution has been increasing, as human activity has catalyzed this spread.

[citation needed] Unlike other species of Culicoides, C. imicola has been shown to prefer drier environments in multiple studies.

[3] A likely reason is that C. imicola pupa are especially prone to drowning, so their eggs are often laid in surfaces free of running water.

This is because in steeply undulating topographic areas, rapid desiccation leads to drying of soil, which prevents proper larval development.

[citation needed] Culicoides imicola and humans usually do not interact directly, but they do so through their capabilities as disease vectors for many farm animals such as cows, horses, and sheep.

These vectors rely on cattle dung, and their introduction into different areas has led to C. imicola and viral spread across the world.

As much as 90% of all BTV cases in the Mediterranean Basin has been linked to C. imicola, which is possibly due to its dry and hot summers that allow rapid larval maturation, which in turn leads to multiple generations hatching within a single season.

The year-round presence of C. imicola in the face of climate change has been identified as the possible source of longer durations of AHS.

[10] The increase in temperature has positively impacted C. imicola distribution, which has raised concern in the spread of disease across central Europe as the flies make their way northward.

[11][12] Without a significant improvement in epidemiological control measures, what is currently considered a once-in-20-years outbreak of bluetongue would occur as frequently as once in five or seven years by midcentury under all but the most optimistic climate change scenario.

[13]: 747 The expansion of C. imicola out of its traditional Old World region of Africa and Asia may be a risk for significant spread orbivirus in the near future.

If temperatures continue to increase or stay roughly the same, the spread of these viral vectors will need to be properly prepared for and countered.