RNA of Geron flavocciput
Specimens were either preserved  in RNAlater or shock-frozen in liquid nitrogen at the ANIC. Depending on  size, whole specimens or thoracic muscle tissue were sent to the Beijing  Genomic Institute (BGI, China) for processing. Total RNA was extracted with TRIzol  reagents (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY, USA), and mRNA selected with  Dynabeads mRNA Purification Kit (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY, USA). The mRNA  was sheared with RNA fragmentation reagents (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY,  USA), before cDNA libraries were built with Illumina TruSeq kits. The cDNA  libraries of 11 distantly related species were equimolarly pooled for 150bp  paired end sequencing on a HiSeq 4000. These pools included other flies,  beetles and moths that are not part of this study.