Family: Artoviridae

Genus: Peropuvirus

Distinguishing features

Members of the genus Peropuvirus infect parasitoid wasps, barnacles, pillworms, woodlice odonates, copepods or plants.

Pteromalus puparum negative-strand RNA virus 1 (PpNSRV-1) was originally isolated from a laboratory parasitoid strain of a pteromalid wasp. The virus is present in various tissues and life stages of the parasitoid and is transmitted vertically through females and males. PpNSRV-1 increases adult longevity and impairs several fitness parameters of the wasp but has no influence on successful parasitism. PpNSRV1 moderates the offspring sex ratio by decreasing female offspring numbers (Wang et al., 2017).

Species demarcation criteria

No species demarcation criteria have been established beyond virus phylogeny and hosts. Members of different Peropuvirus species differ by 52–75% in L amino acid sequence, although sequence divergence is not currently used as a formal species demarcation criterion.