Serological Relations Between Twelve Small RNA Viruses of Insects

Victorian Plant Research Institute, Swan Street, Burnley, Victoria 3121, Australia P. D. Scotti Research School of Biological Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601, Australia Serological tests were done to examine the relationships between twelve picornalike viruses of insects. The results of the tests indicated that the majority of the viruses are unrelated. However, cricket paralysis virus, isolated from Australian wild field crickets, appeared to be identical to Drosophila C virus, independently isolated in France. Cricket paralysis virus was infective for adults of Drosophila melanogaster and its infectivity towards Galleria melonella was neutralised by Drosophila C virus antiserum. It is therefore concluded that cricket paralysis virus and Drosophila C virus are very closely related if not identical. Received 15 July 1975; accepted 10 December 1975.