Regional diversity and complementarity of robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) in northern and northwestern Iran — supporting dataset

This dataset provides the underlying site-level and species-abundance data supporting the study of robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) in northern and northwestern Iran. The data were collected during 2010–2019 from 44 sampling localities across eight provinces: Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, Gilan, Mazandaran, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, and Ardabil. The dataset comprises two complementary data files. S1 provides sampling-locality information, including province, locality, geographic coordinates, altitude, habitat characteristics, and sampling method. S2 provides the complete species-by-province abundance matrix for 89 recorded robber-fly species, representing 1,045 collected specimens. Sampling was conducted using Malaise traps and sweep nets. The dataset supports the analyses of species richness, abundance, alpha diversity, beta diversity, provincial species composition, and species-abundance patterns presented in the associated manuscript. Taxonomic identifications were based on relevant taxonomic literature and, for difficult taxa, specialist consultation. The dataset is intended to facilitate reproducibility, further biodiversity analyses, and future conservation research on robber flies in Iran. Keywords: Asilidae; robber flies; biodiversity; species richness; beta diversity; Iran; Diptera; conservation