The packets of virus lay besmeared on a leaf, left there after the death of a previous caterpillar victim. A healthy caterpillar comes munching along and swallows packets with the leaf tissue. Once inside the caterpillar, a packet unfolds, sinister and orderly, like a MIRV warhead releasing its little nukes over a city. The virions disperse, attacking cells in the caterpillar’s gut. Each virion goes to the cell nucleus (again, hence the name), replicates abundantly, generating new virions that exit the cell and proceed to attack others. “They go from cell to cell, and infect lots and lots of
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The caterpillar melting NPV
