Data from: Secondary forest succession buffers extreme temperature impacts on subtropical Asian ants

An extensive inventory of ground-dwelling ant communities conducted along a successional gradient between 1992 and 1994 (1990s) in Hong Kong SAR (22°09’-22°37’N, 113°50’-114°30’E) during the summer months (May to September). The dataset contains 18 open and 29 closed habitats. “Open habitats” refer to grasslands and shrublands with no tree canopy cover, and “closed habitats” refer to secondary forests with canopy cover > 75%. Distance between any two sites are at least 200 m. At each site, four pitfall traps and eight bait stations were set within a 15 m × 5 m transect (covering a 75 m2 area). For sampled species, six morphological trait measurements and the genus-level phylogeny were included.