Ochrogaster lunifer GN population cuticle under defensive setae before moult
Late instars were collected from private or council lands near Brisbane, Queensland (GN population) and Kings Creek near Howard Springs, Northern Territory (HN population), Australia. In the case of the GN population, a nest of late instars was maintained in captivity allowing sample collection before and after moulting. For transcriptomics, caterpillars were dissected and tissue (either the integument underlying setal fields, or setae) were stored in RNAlater (Thermo Fisher, Waltham, USA). Total RNA was extracted from tissue using TRIzol (Thermo Fisher) using the manufacturers protocol adapted for small quantities of starting material and RNA quality assessed using a Nanodrop spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher). Library construction and sequencing were conducted by The University of Queensland Sequencing Facility at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience. Tru-Seq libraries with 150 bp inserts were constructed and sequenced in paired-end format according to the manufacturer's instructions using a HiSeq 2500 instrument (Illumina, San Diego, USA).