https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h18931zwc

Description of the data and file structure

Pitfall and Malaise trapped ants and (mature) spiders from northern Ghana were identified and measured for biodiversity research of SustInAfrica WP3 (https://sustinafrica.com/). Sorting of bulk material, identification of ants and all of the morphometric measures were executed by VY (University of Helsinki) while spider identification was executed by LC (University of Helsinki). A maximum of five male and five female spiders were measured for total body length, prosoma length, prosoma, width, prosoma height, tibia I length and fang length in millimeters. A maximum of five worker ants were measured for total body length, head length, scape length and distance between the compound eye and the base of the mandible (eye distance) in millimeters. Leica M165C microscope with Leica CLS 100 LED light source and micrometer oculars were used for the measuring.

Files and variables

File: Dryad_data_Araneae.csv

Description: This dataset contains morphometric measurements of spiders (Araneae) collected in northern Ghana in 2022.

Variables

• organismID: An identifier for the organism (D = Dallung mango orchard, F = Sinsablegbinni Forest Reserve, K = Kumbungu mango orchard, PT = pitfall trap, MA = Malaise trap, p = pea, f = flower, pf = pea+flower, c = control).
• family: The full scientific name of the family in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
• genus: The full scientific name of the genus in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
• scientificName: The full scientific name, with authorship and date information if known.
• taxonRank: The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the dwc:scientificName (species, genus, etc.).
• taxonID:  ID for the morphospecies designated by L.C. (co-author).
• sex: The sex of the biological individual(s) (male or female).
• measurementRemarks: Comments or notes accompanying the measurements.
• Total body length mm: Opisthosoma length + Prosoma length in millimeters.
• Prosoma length mm: Length of the prosoma from clypeus to pedicel in millimeters.
• Prosoma width mm: Width of the widest part of the prosoma in millimeters.
• Prosoma height mm: Height of the highest part of the prosoma in millimeters.
• Tibia I length mm: Length of the outer side of the tibia I in millimeters.
• Fang length mm: Length of the fang from apex to base in millimeters.
• measurementMethod: A description of the method or protocol used to determine the measurement.

File: Dryad_data_Formicidae.csv

Description: This dataset contains morphometric measurements of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) collected in northern Ghana in 2022.

Variables

• organismID: An identifier for the organism (D = Dallung mango orchard, F = Sinsablegbinni Forest Reserve, K = Kumbungu mango orchard, PT = pitfall trap, MA = Malaise trap, p = pea, f = flower, pf = pea+flower, c = control).
• family: The full scientific name of the family in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
• genus: The full scientific name of the genus in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
• scientificName: The full scientific name, with authorship and date information if known.
• taxonRank: The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the dwc:scientificName (species, genus, etc.).
• taxonID:  ID for the morphospecies designated by V.Y.
• caste: Categorisation of individuals for eusocial species (worker or queen).
• measurementRemarks: Comments or notes accompanying the measurements.
• Total body length mm: Head length + Mesosomal length (Weber's length) + Metasomal length in millimeters.
• Head length mm: Length of the head without mandibles in millimeters.
• Scape length mm: Length of the 1st antennal segment in millimeters.
• Eye distance mm: Length of the distance between compound eye and mandible base in millimeters.
• measurementMethod: A description of the method or protocol used to determine the measurement.

Missing values

• Missing values (e.g. due to a missing information or measurement) are marked as empty values.

Code/software

• Microsoft Excel

Version changes

9-jan-2025: Updated column names to match Darwin Core (DwC) references. Removed the "nulls" and "NAs" for the alignment with the journal.

17-feb-2025: Separated the spider and ant data, added scientific names for non-species, corrected encoding issues with the author names, added quotation marks for scientific names, replaced NBSP with normal spacing, changed column name "identificationRemarks" to "morphospecies ID" for a clearer description, changed the file format from tsv to csv and updated the file names.

4-mar-2025: Updated column name "morphospecies ID" to "taxonID", removed excessive quotations from scientificName, removed carriage return characters, converted the file format back to tab-separated values.