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Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011

The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 caused the massive release of anthropogenic radioactive materials from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant to its surrounding environment. Its biological effects have been studied using the pale grass blue butterfly, Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lyc...

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Autores principales: Sakauchi, Ko, Taira, Wataru, Toki, Mariko, Iraha, Yuta, Otaki, Joji M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6920751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31690046
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10110389
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author Sakauchi, Ko
Taira, Wataru
Toki, Mariko
Iraha, Yuta
Otaki, Joji M.
author_facet Sakauchi, Ko
Taira, Wataru
Toki, Mariko
Iraha, Yuta
Otaki, Joji M.
author_sort Sakauchi, Ko
collection PubMed
description The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 caused the massive release of anthropogenic radioactive materials from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant to its surrounding environment. Its biological effects have been studied using the pale grass blue butterfly, Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), but the overwintering states of this butterfly remain elusive. Here, we conducted a series of field surveys in March 2018, March 2019, and April 2019 in Fukushima and its vicinity to clarify the overwintering states of this butterfly at the time of the Fukushima nuclear accident. We discovered overwintering individuals in situ associated with the host plant Oxalis corniculata under natural straw mulch as first-instar to fourth-instar larvae in March 2018 and 2019. No other developmental stages were found. The body length and width were reasonably correlated with the accumulated temperature. On the basis of a linear regression equation between body size and accumulated temperature, together with other data, we deduced that the pale grass blue butterfly occurred as fourth-instar larvae in Fukushima and its vicinity at the time of the accident. This study paves the way for subsequent dosimetric analyses that determine the radiation doses absorbed by the butterfly after the accident.
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spelling pubmed-69207512019-12-24 Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011 Sakauchi, Ko Taira, Wataru Toki, Mariko Iraha, Yuta Otaki, Joji M. Insects Article The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 caused the massive release of anthropogenic radioactive materials from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant to its surrounding environment. Its biological effects have been studied using the pale grass blue butterfly, Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), but the overwintering states of this butterfly remain elusive. Here, we conducted a series of field surveys in March 2018, March 2019, and April 2019 in Fukushima and its vicinity to clarify the overwintering states of this butterfly at the time of the Fukushima nuclear accident. We discovered overwintering individuals in situ associated with the host plant Oxalis corniculata under natural straw mulch as first-instar to fourth-instar larvae in March 2018 and 2019. No other developmental stages were found. The body length and width were reasonably correlated with the accumulated temperature. On the basis of a linear regression equation between body size and accumulated temperature, together with other data, we deduced that the pale grass blue butterfly occurred as fourth-instar larvae in Fukushima and its vicinity at the time of the accident. This study paves the way for subsequent dosimetric analyses that determine the radiation doses absorbed by the butterfly after the accident. MDPI 2019-11-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6920751/ /pubmed/31690046 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10110389 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sakauchi, Ko
Taira, Wataru
Toki, Mariko
Iraha, Yuta
Otaki, Joji M.
Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011
title Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011
title_full Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011
title_fullStr Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011
title_full_unstemmed Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011
title_short Overwintering States of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) at the Time of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident in March 2011
title_sort overwintering states of the pale grass blue butterfly zizeeria maha (lepidoptera: lycaenidae) at the time of the fukushima nuclear accident in march 2011
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6920751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31690046
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10110389
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