DOI: 10.5061/dryad.h18931zwc
title: Morphological traits of spiders (Araneae) and ants (Formicidae) collected from Northern Ghanaian mango orchards and forest savanna

description: This dataset contains the values of morphological traits measured from
 mature spiders and ants collected in northern Ghana October/November 2022.
 The six measured morphological traits for spiders are Total body length
 (mm), Prosoma length (mm), Prosoma width (mm), Prosoma height (mm), Tibia
 I length (mm) and Fang length (mm) and the four measured morphological
 traits for ants are Total body length (mm), Head length (mm), Scape length
 (mm) and Eye Distance (mm).
description: Adult spiders and ants were sorted from standardized pitfall and
 Malaise trap material collected in Oct/Nov 2022 Tamale, Ghana. Individuals
 were identified as accurate as possibly to species, morphospecies, genus
 etc. by Luís Crespo (spiders) and Veikko Yrjölä (ants). A maximum of ten
 individuals (5 females and 5 males or 10 worker ants) were selected
 randomly and mesured under microsope. The six measured morphological
 traits for spiders were Total body length (mm), Prosoma length (mm),
 Prosoma width (mm), Prosoma height (mm), Tibia I length (mm) and Fang
 length (mm) and the four measured morphological traits for ants were Total
 body length (mm), Head length (mm), Scape length (mm) and Eye Distance
 (mm). Finally, selected and measured spiders were preserved in the ethanol
 collection at the Finnish Museum of Natural History and the rest of the
 material was sent back to University for Development Studies, Ghana. All
 occurences are digitized and available separately on GBIF.
description: # Morphological traits of spiders (Araneae) and ants (Formicidae)
 collected from Northern Ghanaian mango orchards and forest savanna
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h18931zwc](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/](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 withLeica 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.). * identificationID: 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 basein 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). * subfamily: The full scientific name of the subfamily 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.). * identificationID: 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 and converted the file format back to tab-separated values. **5-mar-2025:** Updated column name to "identificationID" and removed carriage return characters.