Characterization of 28 microsatellite loci for the butterfly Bicyclus anynana

We present 28 polymorphic microsatellite loci, including a sex-linked W-chromosome marker, for the Afrotropical butterfly, Bicyclus anynana. Our primary motivation to develop these markers was to apply them in quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping studies. A technique is also proposed that may be useful in avoiding redundant sequences which are common in lepidopteran-enriched libraries. Pedigree analysis was performed to test Mendelian segregation of the markers and to address the issue of null alleles.