ABSTRACT
More than 30 small RNA viruses of insects have been called picornaviruses or enteroviruses by analogy with mammalian viruses. Cricket paralysis virus (CrPV) was identified during a mass breeding program of the Australian field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. The RNA of Gonometa virus was not examined and there was no evidence for a VP4 with CrPV. Relatively little is known about the pathology of insect picornaviruses or how they are transmitted under natural conditions. The most studied viruses are CrPV and DCV. The host ranges of CrPV and DCV have been studied by the experimental introduction of virions into other hosts and serological identification of these viruses in other insects. One study also utilized CrPV to investigate the basis of the "antiviral system" in insects by inoculating G. mellonella larvae with inactive virus and subsequently challenging with live virus. The intracellular proteins expressed by CrPV and DCV in infected Drosophila cells have been examined in detail by Moore and his co-workers.
