A beneficial arthropod dataset for agricultural landscapes in Western Canada and adjacent mountain ecosystems

One of the largest drivers of global biodiversity trends is land use change and habitat loss. Through several studies of beneficial arthropods, we have compiled a spatially- extensive passive-sampling arthropod dataset for Western Canada focused on landscape diversity. This dataset, collected from 2015-2019, consists of more than 200,000 specimens, five arthropod orders, and 26 families of either pollinators (Hymenoptera, Diptera) or natural enemies of pests (Coleoptera, Araneae, Opiliones). In the research that collectively makes up this dataset, there are 409 sampling sites in two focal areas: the Canadian Rockies (n=70) and the agriculturally intense Canadian prairies (n=339).  Sampled in the montane region focused on Bombus species, while both pollinators and natural enemies were sampled in the prairies. Within the prairie region, there was also a focus on non-crop habitat that occurs within or adjacent to the annual crop fields and rangelands that dominate the region. This data can..., The specimens in the dataset came from either montane or prairie sampling sites. The montane data was collected in the Canadian Rockies along hiking trails and used only blue vane traps (SpringStar LLC, Woodinville, WA, USA) meant for sampling arthropod pollinators. The prairie data was primarily collected in intensely agricultural areas and the surrounding non-crop land cover like native prairie grasslands, tree stands, and wetlands. In this area, there were two types of sampling stations- “ditch” stations along road margins that border agricultural areas, or in-field stations that are inside agricultural or non-crop areas. Prairie sites had either a blue vane trap, a pitfall trap, or both. Pitfall traps are made by burying a 528 ml Solo® cups into the ground up to the rim and filling it halfway with propylene glycol and covering it with 2 cm wire mesh to exclude small vertebrates. Sites with both blue vane traps and pitfall traps also had a trio of colored cup traps (3 x 12 oz. white ..., , # A beneficial arthropod dataset for agricultural landscapes in Western Canada, and adjacent mountain ecosystems

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f55s](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tmpg4f55s)

This dataset contains 200,000+ records of of either pollinators (Hymenoptera, Diptera) or natural enemies of pests (Coleoptera, Araneae, Opiliones), collected between 2015-2019 in Western Canada. All pollinator specimens were collected using either blue vane traps or coloured cup traps filled with propylene glycol, and natural enemies were collected using pitfall traps, also filled with propylene glycol. The trapping duration varies by trap but is about 14 days on average. Specimens were stored in ethyl alcohol, then washed, pinned, and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Some specimens are identified to sex, and social bees are identified to caste when possible.

**Description of the data and file structure**

The original database was managed using three separate tables: a si...