Novel viruses in the families Iflaviridae and Partitiviridae associated with the common eastern firefly Photinus pyralis.

Abstract

Fireflies are iconic insects that are under threat from environmental change. Knowledge of the viral diversity associated with natural firefly populations is important to our understanding of the basic biology of these insects and could be relevant to firefly conservation. We performed metatranscriptome sequencing of the Common Eastern Firefly ( Photinus pyralis) and assembled genomes for two new species of virus in the families Iflaviridae and Partitiviridae. We surveyed multiple individuals for these viruses using PCR, and we showed that both viruses are found at intermediate frequences in a natural population.