DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rn8pk0pck
title: Color and W-chromosome sequence data from study on maternal inheritance of egg mimicry

description: This dataset supports a study demonstrating that host-specific egg mimicry
 in the brood-parasitic African cuckoo finch Anomalospiza imberbis
 is maternally inherited. It includes egg reflectance spectra for the
 background colour of 188 cuckoo finch eggs from four host species in
 Zambia, and consensus sequences for 68 W-linked ddRAD-seq loci derived
 from 80 female cuckoo finches belonging to four different host-specific
 maternal lineages from three host species in Zambia. These data derive
 from two partially overlapping samples of eggs: some eggs with genetic
 data lacked egg spectral data, and vice versa. W-linked genetic data were
 all of offspring origin as they derived from embryonic or nestling tissue.
 Additional phenotypic data (host nest species and descriptions of egg
 phenotype), date and location data associated with each egg spectrum are
 provided in a separate file. Data on the origin of the individuals
 contributing to the W-linked loci are provided in Table S1 of the
 associated publication.
description: cuckoo_finch_egg_color_spectra.txt
 Reflectance spectra of the background color of 188 cuckoo finch
 (<em>Anomalospiza imberbis</em>) eggs over the bird-visible
 spectrum (300–700 nm). Spectra were taken using Ocean Optics USB2000 and
 USB4000 spectrometers following methods in Spottiswoode & Stevens
 2010 (PNAS 107: 8672-8676). Values for each egg are means of five
 measurements per egg, and processed using the R package pavo to apply
 smoothing and remove negative values by setting the minimum value to zero
 and scaling other values accordingly. Spectra describe seven different
 cuckoo finch egg phenotypes, each of which mimics a different host species
 or different colour variant within a host species (plotted in Fig S2 of
 the associated paper). Where more than one cuckoo finch egg was present in
 a host nest, one was selected for analysis, since multiple eggs in the
 same host nest were typically laid by the same host female (one exception
 was a nest containing two parasitic eggs of different color phenotypes,
 presumably laid by different females). Note that some eggs from different
 host nests were laid by the same parasitic female (as confirmed by sibship
 of offspring from a subset of eggs with ddRAD-seq data) and so are
 non-independent. All eggs are from our study site in Zambia (detailed in
 the associated paper) during 2007–2009 and 2012–2014. 
   
 cuckoo_finch_egg_color_spectra_metadata.txt
 Additional data relating to cuckoo finch
 (<em>Anomalospiza imberbis</em>) eggs with reflectance
 spectra: geographical coordinates, dates, host nest species, descriptions
 of mimetic egg phenotypes, and notes on four eggs that mimicked a
 different host species to the host nest they were found in.
  
 cuckoo_finch_W-linked_ddRAD-seq_loci.nex
 NEXUS file comprising 68 ddRAD-seq loci recovered in some or
 all female cuckoo finches (<em>Anomalospiza imberbis</em>) but
 not in males. The consensus sequence for each W-linked locus is shown for
 each of four host-specific maternal lineages. Samples sizes for the four
 host-specific lineages were: “erythrops” = 5 females; “juncidis" =
 16; “prinia_blue" = 34; “prinia_red" = 25. Only one position at
 one locus was variable within a given maternal lineage (see locus
 C1617.d). At all other loci the females in each matriline had identical
 sequences. Loci are numbered arbitrarily, as output by the ddRAD-seq
 analysis pipeline. In some cases, two or more similar loci were initially
 clustered together into a single putative locus, but were then separated
 manually based on careful examination of the raw data, including read
 depths. These separated loci are indicated by letter suffixes. Loci not
 recovered from females in a particular matriline are indicated by a string
 of "N"s. The data set includes 68 loci, 8,604 alignment
 positions plus 25 indel and locus presence-absence characters.
description: Details are provided in ReadMe files. 
 <br>Also see GenBank (BioProject ID: PRJNA809323) for additional
 cuckoo finch genetic data associated with this study.