Comparative transcriptomics provides insights into reticulate and adaptive evolution of a butterfly radiation

We utilized the whole eye transcriptome to obtain a more holistic view of the evolution of the butterfly eye while accounting for speciation events that co-occur with ancient hybridization. Butterflies eye tissues were isolated from eight newly emerged adult female samples, one of each species: H. hortense, H. cydno, H. sara, H. doris, H. hecale, H. erato, H. melpomene and D. iulia. RNA was extracted and Illumina paired-end libraries were constructed and sequenced with an Illumina HiSeq 2000.