Organochlorines and heavy metals in 17-year cicadas pose no apparent dietary threat to birds.
Organochlorine and heavy metal concentrations in 17-year cicadas from Prince Georges and Anne Arundel Counties, Maryland, were well below levels known to be harmful to birds. Cicadas contained concentrations of metals similar to or less than other local invertebrates except they contained more copper than did earthworms. Copper and lead concentrations in cicadas from one site may have been elevated by sewage plant effluent deposited during river floodings. Cicadas from the median of a major highway did not contain more lead than cicadas from non-traffic sites.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 20708, Laurel, MD, USA.
D R
DR
Clark