Occurrence dataset Registered March 07, 2024

    Occurence of spiders (Araneae) and ants (Formicidae) collected from northern Ghanaian mango orchards and forest savannah

    Description

    The dataset contains occurrence data of 36 species and 29 morphospecies of spiders (Araneae) and 41 species and 22 morphospecies of ants (Formicidae) collected from ten sampling points in northern Ghana during Oct-Nov 2022. The total sample size is 288 samples of spiders with 438 mature individuals and 782 samples of ants with 7859 individuals. The dataset contains collection information (locality, habitat, collecting method, time, coordinates, collectors, etc.) and sample information (collection code, count, sex, remarks, etc.). This work was part of the project SustInAfrica and funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement 861924.

    Geographic scope

    Description

    Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Northern region

    Latitude
    From 9.305 to 9.693
    Longitude
    From -1.079 to -0.534

    Temporal scope

    range
    October 06, 2022 - November 14, 2022

    Methodology

    Sampling

    Plot sizes and trap numbers varied so that in the Forest Reserve four 50x50m plots were sampled with 48 pitfall traps and one Malaise trap in each, while in the Kumbungu mango orchard five approximately 30x30m plots were sampled with 32 pitfall traps and four Malaise traps in each, and in the Dallung mango orchard a small 10x10m subplot was trapped with eight pitfall traps and one Malaise trap.

    Study extent

    Pitfall and Malaise trapping was preformed in October-November 2022 in Sinsablegbinni Forest Reserve and mango orchards in villages of Kumbungu and Dallung, northern Ghana.

    Method steps
    1. After the trapping, the material was stored in 96% ethanol and shipped to Helsinki, Finland, where the focal taxa were sorted and identified to species or morphospecies level. A maximum of ten individuals of each (morpho)species were collected, labelled, measured and stored in the collections of the Finnish Museum of Natural History (Luomus), while the rest of the material was sent back to the country of origin for further inspection. The abbreviations used for morphological measurements in dynamicProperties are from https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Morphological_Measurements.

    Metrics

    Additional info

    Associated specimen records can be found in https://www.gbif.org/dataset/3c40bd29-eb8e-4a0d-93c5-3cb1b7204a4f and https://www.gbif.org/dataset/afc5826a-b29b-4edb-9618-11c24df5fa83

    Contacts

    • Veikko Yrjölä

      Originator
      Administrative point of contact
      Organization
      Finnish Museum of Natural History
      Position
      Staff
      Roles
      Originator
      Administrative point of contact
      Email
    • Pedro Cardoso

      Administrative point of contact
      Organization
      Finnish Museum of Natural History
      Position
      Staff
      Roles
      Administrative point of contact

    GBIF registration

    Registration date
    March 07, 2024
    Metadata last modified
    March 17, 2025
    Publication date
    March 17, 2025
    Hosted by
    Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility
    Installation
    FinBIF IPT
    Endpoints
    Darwin Core Archive
    EML
    Preferred identifier
    10.15468/h9vtau
    Alternative identifiers

    Citation

    Yrjölä V (2025). Occurence of spiders (Araneae) and ants (Formicidae) collected from northern Ghanaian mango orchards and forest savannah. Version 1.8. Finnish Museum of Natural History. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/h9vtau accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-04-30.