Data from: Reaching new heights: Arboreal ant diversity in a North American temperate forest ecosystem

Most canopy insect research takes place in tropical forests, where
communities are highly vertically stratified. However, temperate forest
canopies also provide critical resources to many species and are under
intense pressure from global change drivers. The relative lack of
knowledge regarding temperate canopy insect ecology impedes our forest
management and conservation decisions, such that we may be losing
temperate canopy biodiversity before we know it exists. Here, we directly
compare ant diversity and community composition on the ground and in the
tree canopy of North American temperate deciduous forests for the first
time. We also evaluate two canopy sampling methods—bait stations and hand
collections. We collected 34 ant species from 102 trees across 7 sites in
North Carolina, USA. Ant diversity was greater on the ground than in the
canopy, and species turnover created distinct communities across vertical
strata. Only 12% of species were exclusively arboreal, but 47% were
collected in both strata, indicating the forest canopy is an important
resource for temperate ants, even if they are not restricted there.
Baiting and hand collecting recovered similar species richness overall,
but whether baits captured a nested subset or unique assemblage of species
was context dependent. Nevertheless, we suggest that these methods are
most effective in conjunction. Hand collection allowed us to document the
arboreal nesting habits of 10 species, including the invasive needle ant,
Brachyponera chinensis (Emery), which was previously thought to be
strictly terrestrial. Our results emphasize the importance of including
the canopy in temperate forest ecology and conservation assessments.