Data from: Global phylogenetic structure of the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole reveals the repeated evolution of macroecological patterns

Adaptive radiations are of particular interest due to what they reveal about evolutionary and ecological regulation of biodiversity. This applies to localized island radiations such as Darwin’s finches, but also to rapid radiations occurring on a global scale. Here we analyze the macroevolution and macroecology of Pheidole, a famously hyperdiverse and ecologically dominant ant genus. We generate and analyze four novel datasets; a) a global phylogeny including 284 Pheidole species, b) a global database on regional Pheidole richness in 365 political areas summarizing over 97,000 individual records from >6,500 studies, c) a global database of Pheidole richness from 3,796 local communities, and d) a database of Pheidole body sizes across species. Analysis of the potential climate drivers of richness revealed that the patterns are statistically very similar across different biogeographic regions, with both regional and local richness associated with the same coefficients of temperature and precipitation. This similarity occurs even though phylogenetic analysis shows that Pheidole reached dominance in communities through serial localized radiations into different biomes within different continents and islands. Pheidole body size distributions have likewise converged across geographic regions. We propose these cases of convergence indicate that the global radiation of Pheidole is structured by deterministic factors regulating diversification and diversity.