Invasion of the coccinellid community associated with a tropical annual agroecosystem

To examine the potential effect of an invasive coccinellid (Harmonia axyridis) on the resident community of coccinellids, we sampled predators and prey associated with organic Brassica oleracea production on 6 farms during 2 years in the Distrito Federal, Brasil and conducted a food acceptability trial to estimate niche breadth and overlap among the coccinellids. The data are in two files. The first is a community sample data set, with columns describing the sample characteristics (year, farm, sample period) and the summed counts of all macroinvertebrates found on 30 plants at each sample period, farm and year. There are 120 samples and 36 populations of macroinvertebrates in the data set. The second data set is the acceptability of 4 aphid prey species to 3 stages of 4 species of coccinellids. There are 15 replicates of the 48 treatments. The data also include the biomass of the predators at the end of the experiment. Farms have been de-identified, and the data can be used by anyone wi..., Brassica oleracea production fields at six organic vegetable farms in the Distrito Federal, Brazil were examined during 2017 and 2018: 15°39'06\"S 48°06'33\"W; 15°39'00\"S 48°12'01\"W; 15°36'43\"S 48°04'43\"W; 15°33'54\"S 48°01'48\"W; 15°44'18\"S 47°39'13\"W; and 15°45'44\"S 47°38'29\"W. Data were collected under Brazilian authorization numbers SISBIO 36950 and IBAMA 02001.008598/2012-42. Crops were grown according to recommendations for organic production. Within each field, an area of about 200 m2 was designated as the sample area. Invertebrates were sampled at each farm every two weeks during the dry season (May to September, 10 sample dates total per year), because aphid populations, which are important pests of brassicas, are higher during the dry season. Each sample comprised a count of all invertebrates on 30 plants by visual inspection. All invertebrates were identified in the field to the lowest feasible taxonomic level based on pictorial keys and experts in the field. When aphids were spa..., All data files are csv files and the contents of each are described in the README.txt file.