Dataset of wing measures of Scaptodrosophila lativittata (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Measurements of the wing venation of 20 specimens (10 males and 10 females) of Scaptodrosophila lativittata (Malloch, 1923:618, type locality Sydney, family Drosophilidae) are presented with the objective to discover the extent and sources of error and variation in the measurement of wing venation within a species. The specimens were all collected on the BushBlitz Expedition to Oxley Wild Rivers NP, -30.8° 151.1°, NSW, Australia, coll. John Tann, 5–10 November 2015, from banana bait (Australian Museum, Sydney). One wing was removed from each specimen, flat-mounted on a slide under a cover slip, photographed at high resolution and measured digitally in one of two ways: (a) by direct measurement between two measure-points or landmarks, and (b) by trigonometry after logging all distance measures and angles from a fixed point—a time-saving method described by McEvey (2017). Four datasets are presented here: Table 1 lists the distances (µm) between defined measure-points, the process used in Table 1 is replicated in Table 2. In Table 3, the trigonometry method is used on the same 20 wings. In Table 4 the same wing is measured 25 times, 12 times by McE and 13 times by KD; human bias and error in technique becomes apparent. Table 5 is a key to abbreviations and should be used in conjunction with McEvey’s (2017) diagrams of measure-points.