Data for: Synchronous seasonal plasticity in colouration, behaviour, and visual gene expression in a wild butterfly population

This data corresponds to the paper: \"Synchronous seasonal plasticity in colouration, behaviour, and visual gene expression in a wild butterfly population.\" It contains multiple spreadsheets with behavioral data, wing reflectance measurements, qualitative wing characteristics, real-time quantitative PCR results, and primer effiency data. We investigate if there are covarying seasonal changes to morphology, behaviour, and the visual system in the seasonally plastic butterfly Junonia coenia. Wild, native butterflies in tallgrass prairies were collected and observed during their flight period (May to November) from 2018 to 2021. We found at our field sites in northwest Arkansas, more J. coenia exhibit seasonal dark wing patterns in September and October compared to butterflies collected in previous months, independent of sex. This change in wing pattern correlates to an increase in observed basking behaviour in the field. Basking changed in both focal watches and point count surveys. R..., Behavioral data includes counted instances and durations of behaviors made during point counts and focal watches. Qualitative wing score data was scored blind in regards to sex and collection date by single individual in a single session.  Reflectance measurements were recorded with a spectrophotometer (Jaz; Ocean Optics) and proccessed in R to extract total area under reflectance curves. Temperature data in spreadsheets is from wunderground.com and daylength from NOAA (https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/calcdetails.html). Real-time quantitative PCR data are results from reactions run on a CFX96 machine (Bio-Rad). , , # Data for: Synchronous seasonal plasticity in colouration, behaviour, and visual gene expression in a wild butterfly population

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjnt](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjnt)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset (WildJunonia_Data_Dryad.xlsx) contains wing measurements, behavioral observations, and gene expression levels taken from wild *Junonia coenia* observed and captured from wild populations in northwest Arkansas from May to November in 2018-2021. Wing measurements are both quantitative (reflectance measurements) and qualitative. Behavioral observations are from point counts and focal watches. Gene expression values are the results of real-time quantitative PCR examining opsin (*BRh*, *LWRh*, and *UVRh*) and *period* genes in eye tissue. Dataset also includes environmental conditions gathered from online sources.

### Files and variables

#### File: WildJunonia_Data_Dryad.xlsx

#### Description of the data and file struct...,