Species inventory and morphological measurements of spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) and ants (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Formicidae) collected in northern Ghana

By

Yrjölä, Veikko
Crespo, Luís Carlos
Saussure, Stephanie
Asamoah, Francis
Soukainen, Arttu
Badii, Benjamin
Sihvonen, Pasi
Cardoso, Pedro

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2026-1-7

Original Publication

Biodiversity data journal

Volume

14

Pages

1--31

Subjects

Agriculture , Biodiversity , Checklist , mango orchard , morphometrics , standardised sampling , West Africa , West Sudanian savannah

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers [2013]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.14.e163267

 

Abstract

Agricultural expansion, a leading driver of biodiversity loss, has widespread effects on ecosystem services, particularly in tropical regions. In West Africa, the impact of intensified agriculture on local biodiversity – especially predator and decomposer species like spiders and ants – is understudied. This study aims to provide a checklist of terrestrial spiders and ants associated with savannahs and mango orchards in northern Ghana thus creating a baseline for further ecological studies on the community composition of these groups.<br> In this data paper, we publish the baseline checklist and morphological measurements of spiders (Araneae) and ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) associated with forest savannahs and mango orchards located in northern Ghana. In total, we collected 64 species (28 unidentified morphospecies) of spiders and 64 species (24 unidentified morphospecies) of ants. Of these, almost all spider species and nine ant species were new records for Ghana, while many of the morphospecies could potentially be species new to science. In addition, we publish standardised morphological measurements of each species for potential functional diversity studies in the future.