Abstract
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.
Highlights
Massive amounts of anthropogenic radioactive materials have been released into the environment from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP); the accident occurred on 11 March
The habitats in Fukushima in March and April were mostly covered with dried grass, which may function as natural straw mulch (Figure 2a,b)
This study revealed that the pale grass blue butterfly overwintered as larvae of various instars in Fukushima and its vicinity in March 2018 and 2019
Summary
Massive amounts of anthropogenic radioactive materials have been released into the environment from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP); the accident occurred on 11 March [1,2,3,4,5,6], and the largest release occurred on 15 March 2011 [7,8,9]. The impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident on humans are difficult to evaluate and have only been reported in a few studies [10,11], the biological impacts have been evaluated mostly in field-based surveys and dosimetric simulation analyses using various animals and plants [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. There is accumulated field and laboratory evidence that this butterfly has been affected considerably by the Fukushima nuclear accident [11,41,42,43,44,45,46,47]
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