In this report, an RT-PCR approach based on the use of degenerate primers allowed the identification of
negeviruses in four different species of mosquitoes (Ochlerotatus caspius, Culex pipiens, Cx. theileri and Cx.
univittatus) collected in southern Portugal. The genomes of two of these viruses, sequenced to full
completion, were shown to encode all the proteins encoded by previously described negeviruses. One of
these viruses induces exuberant cytopathic effect in insect cell culture, with no obvious signs of
apoptosis induction, replicating very rapidly and allowing for the detection of viral genomes in the
infected culture supernatant as soon as 4 h post-infection. This virus was also shown to use a dsRNA
intermediate, which was found to be fully formed and active 3 h after infection. Phylogenetic analysis of
two products encoded by the viral ORF1 placed both viruses among Negev virus cluster, in the recently