Carbon dioxide sensitivity in mosquitoes infected with sigma, vesicular stomatitis, and other rhabdoviruses.

Carbon dioxide, usually an innocuous narcotic for insects, kills mosquitoes infected with rhabdoviruses. Such toxicity was originally observed in Drosophila harboring a hereditary virus, sigma, and has been considered unique to Drosophila. The new findings support the possibility that insects with piercing and sucking mouthparts harbor similar hereditary viruses and transmit some of them to vertebrates or plants.