STUDIES OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MEASURING CHANGES IN ENVIRONMENTAL-POLLUTION WITH THE PIXE METHOD USING MOTHS AS A MONITOR

The possibility has been investigated of using the PIXE method to yiel d long and reliable time series for indicating changes in the environm ent, with moths or butterflies as a sample target. The suitability of this approach was demonstrated by studying standard deviations of meas urements of single moths and those of populations of moths. The proper ties of targeting at different anatomical sites were investigated and the wing gave the most stable results, perhaps because its metabolic d evelopment is completed ar the imago (newborn butterfly) stage. Accord ing to test measurements of different populations it seems possible to use moth or butterfly wing measurements to study environmental change s over the past century or so using moth or butterfly collections.