Table 3. Heavy metal contents of Protaetia brevitarsis larvae in the control (GRP) and formulated-diet (FD1-FD3) treatment groups after gut-evacuation pre-treatment

Hazardous substance	Content	Control	Formulated diets
Hazardous substance	Content	GRP¹⁾	FD1	FD2	FD3
Heavy metals (mg/kg)	Lead (Pb)	0.040±0.002^2)b3)	0.068±0.002^a	0.067±0.010^a	0.069±0.006^a
	Cadmium (Cd)	0.011±0.001^NS4)	0.020±0.002^NS	0.020±0.004^NS	0.019±0.004^NS
	Arsenic (As)	0.018±0.005^NS	0.031±0.002^NS	0.031±0.003^NS	0.028±0.004^NS

Abbreviations: GRP, larvae provided with the control diet (glutinous rice powder) during depuration (control group); FD1-FD3, larvae provided with formulated diets 1-3 during depuration (formulated-diet groups).
All values are mean±SD (n=2, % w/w).
Different superscript lowercase letters, within the same row indicate significant differences among treatment groups at p<0.05 by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD test.
NS indicates no significant differences among treatment groups within the same row (p>0.05).