The effects of APV may extend to higher trophic levels
Host infection with viral pathogens can impact parasitoid fitness (Flick et al. 2016, Dupont et al. 2020). We found that wasps developing from APV+ aphids were significantly smaller than those from virus-free controls in three of four lines lacking H. defensa . In the singleH. defensa line we examined, wasps that survived symbiont defenses were similar in size regardless of APV infection. This result is perplexing given that aphids with both H. defensa and APV exhibited the poorest fitness overall (Table 4D, E) combined with earlier studies finding that wasps emerging from aphids with H. defensa were smaller (Dion et al. 2011, Schmid et al. 2012) .