Supporting data for "A ghost moth olfactory prototype of the lepidopteran sex communication"

Sex role differentiation is a widespread phenomenon. Sex pheromones are often associated with sex roles and convey sex-specific information. In Lepidoptera, females release sex pheromones to attract males, which evolve sophisticated olfactory structures to relay pheromone signals. However, in some primitive moths, sex role differentiation becomes diverged. Here, we introduce the chromosome-level genome assembly from ancestral Himalaya ghost moths, revealing a unique olfactory evolution pattern and sex role parity among Lepidoptera. These olfactory structures of the ghost moths are characterized by a dense population of trichoid sensilla, both larger male and female antennal entry parts of brains, compared to the evolutionary later Lepidoptera. Furthermore, a unique tandem of 34 odorant receptor 19 homologs in <i>Thitarodes xiaojinensis</i> (<i>TxiaOr19</i>) has been identified, which presents overlapped motifs with pheromone receptors (<i>PRs</i>). Interestingly, the expanded <i>TxiaOr19</i> was predicted to have unconventional tuning patterns compared to canonical <i>PRs</i>, with non-sexual dimorphic olfactory neuropils discovered, which contributes to the observed equal sex roles in <i>Thitarodes</i> adults. Additionally, transposable element activity bursts have provided traceable loci landscapes where parallel diversifications occurred between <i>TxiaOr19</i> and <i>PRs</i>, indicating that the <i>Or19</i> homolog expansions were diversified to <i>PRs</i> during evolution and thus established the classic sex roles in higher moths. This study elucidates an olfactory prototype of intermediate sex communication from Himalaya ghost moths.