Data from: New Record of the Pavement Ant, Tetramorium immigrans (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in South Dakota with notes on its thermal tolerance and geographic distribution

Data files for manuscript titled "New Record of the Pavement Ant, Tetramorium immigrans (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in South Dakota with Notes on its Thermal Tolerance and Geographic Distribution".

Excel file with 7 tabs: Metadata; CTmin, CTmax, Knock-down, Chill coma, Specimen data, Observation data

Data description: Raw data for county observations/museum collections and thermal traits of Tetramorium immigrans. The data for observations/museum collections were collated from >100 years of publicly available information on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Symbiota Collections of Arthropods Network (SCAN). Presence/absence values from these digital repositories were assigned to current county or county equivalent federal information processing system (FIPS) codes to create an updated distributional map. Thermal trait data that included critical thermal maximum and minimum, knock-down resistance, and chill coma recovery were empirically determined from specimens collected in Brookings, SD in 2022 and 2023. Methods for each assay are listed in the main text.

Abstract from paper: The pavement ant, Tetramorium immigrans Santschi, is an abundant and widespread species across large portions of the United States. Yet despite its current distribution in Northeastern, Midwestern, Pacific, and Western states, there is a surprising lack of records from the Great Plains. Here we present an updated county list of T. immigrans from museum collections and research grade observations (459 counties; ~15% of US counties), highlighting the first records from one Great Plains state—South Dakota. Observations on community science platforms since 2006 have undoubtedly increased the awareness of T. immigrans (+329 counties; ~72% of all county records), however we posit that such platforms may also highlight the dispersal limitations of this species into the less urban, colder Northern Great Plains states of Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming (~5% of 291 counties). As such, we offer novel information on T. immigrans’ thermal biology including measurements of critical thermal limits, knock-down resistance, and chill coma recovery. While T. immigrans can likely tolerate the warm summer temperatures found in South Dakota due to its heat tolerance hovering around 46 °C, its lower ability to tolerate cold winter conditions may be a possible mechanism for its limited dispersal.