CanFlyet: Habitat zone and diet trait dataset for Diptera species of Canada and Greenland

True flies (Diptera) are an ecologically important group that play a role in agriculture, public health, and ecosystem functioning. As researchers continue to investigate this order, it is beneficial to link the growing occurrence data to biological traits. However, large-scale ecological trait data are not readily available for fly species. While some databases and datasets include fly data, many ecologically relevant traits for taxa of interest are not included. In this dataset we provide ecological traits (habitat and diet) for fly species of Canada and Greenland having occurrence records on the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD). Trait data were compiled based on literature searches conducted from April 2021 - April 2024 and assigned at the lowest taxonomic level possible. The dataset contains traits for 981 species across 380 genera, 34 subfamilies, and 61 families. This dataset allows for assignment of traits to occurrence data for Diptera species and can be used for further rese..., The fly species were chosen for inclusion in this dataset by first downloading data for Diptera from Canada and Greenland from BOLD directly into R using BOLD’s application programming interface (API) on June 24th, 2021. The records were filtered based on the requirements outlined in Majoros et al. (2023), and the remaining species were chosen for analysis and inclusion in this dataset. Additional species from Greenland were chosen based on occurrence records from GBIF (GBIF.org (June 24th, 2021)) GBIF Occurrence Download (https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.mk52hp) and included in the dataset. The biological traits for each species were determined and assigned through literature searches conducted from April 2021 - April 2024. Through the Omni Academic search tool available through the University of Guelph and Google Scholar, traits were found using the following search terms: trait AND “Taxonomic name”, habitat AND “Taxonomic name”, diet AND “Taxonomic name”, “Feeding mode” AND “Taxonomic nam..., The dataset is provided in three formats. Only the xlsx file requires Microsoft Excel to open. All files contain the same dataset and information. , # CanFlyet: Habitat Zone and Diet Trait Dataset for Diptera Species of Canada and Greenland

This README.txt was last updated on April 29th, 2024, by Samantha Majoros

Updates: Based on feedback from peer reviewers, the trait assignments and categories have been updated. Additional search terms were added, and an additional extensive literature search was conducted resulting in over 400 new references. Trait categories were redefined. “Phytophagous” and \"Omnivore\" were removed as categories, and “Leaf/Root/Stem Feeding”, “Nectar/Pollen/Honeydew Feeding”, “Detritus and Algae Feeding”, “Kleptoparasitic” and “Ployphagous” were added. “Fungivore” has been renamed to “Mycophagous”. The “Unclear” category has been added for taxa where there is not enough information to make a trait assignment. Taxa may now also have two trait categories separated by “or”. In this case, it was unclear which was the most common trait category. Due to the new literature search and updated trait categories, assig...