High-throughput screening reveals high diversity and widespread distribution of viruses in black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens)

Virus discovery in mass-reared insects is a growing topic of interest due to outbreak risks and for insect welfare concerns. In the case of black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens, BSF), pioneering bioinformatic studies have uncovered exogenous viruses from the orders Ghabrivirales and Bunyavirales, as well as endogenous viral elements from five virus families. This prompted further virome investigation of BSF metagenomes and metatranscriptomes, including from BSF individuals displaying signs and symptoms of disease. A high-throughput pipeline allowed the simultaneous investigation of 203 next generation sequencing datasets. This revealed the presence of seven viruses belonging to the families Dicistroviridae, Iflaviridae, Rhabdoviridae, Solinviviridae, Inseviridae, Lebotiviridae, and an unclassified Bunyavirales. Here we describe five viruses, which were detected in BSF from multiple origins, outlining the diversity of naturally occurring viruses associated with BSF colonies. As this viral community may also include BSF pathogens, we developed molecular detection tools which could be used for viral surveillance, both in mass-reared and wild populations of BSF.