Bark and ambrosia beetles on Mt. Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea

Global warming is expected to shift the distribution ranges of many species towards higher latitudes and altitudes. This will rewire plant-herbivore food webs as new combinations of herbivore species encounter novel host plants. We investigated the effects of a simulated altitudinal shift in a herbivore-host community of bark and ambrosia beetles on fig trees in a tropical mountain forest on Mt. Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea. We reared beetles from wood baits cut from five local Ficus species in their natural altitudinal ranges, between 200 – 1700 masl. Further, we transplanted baits from three of these tree species 500 m below the limits of their natural distribution range, to simulate a mean temperature increase of 2.7°C. Beetle species richness declined, and their species composition changed with increasing elevation. Furthermore, while altitude explained a large proportion of variance in beetle composition, host tree species was more important for bark beetles than ambrosia beetles. Bee..., , , # Bark and Ambrosia Beetle Data

The dataset contains the bark and ambrosia beetle species that were reared from wood baits of 5 different *Ficus* species along an altitudinal tropical forest gradient on Mt. Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea.

## Description of the data and file structure

The data consists of an Excel file containing a single table with a species-abundance list of saproxylic beetles reared from wood baits of five different *Ficus* tree species. Rearing took place along an elevational tropical forest gradient at altitudes of 200, 700, 1200 and 1700m. Additionally baits from two tree species were transplanted below the natural distribution range of their species.

Data rows represent beetle species and are sorted alphabetically with an additional column describing their feeding guild (“ambrosia beetle”; “bark beetle”).

Data columns represent the wood baits of five tree species at four different altitudes with two replicates each (“_1”; “_2”), except in one case where there ar...