Dataset on the abundance of ants and Cosmopolites sordidus damage in plantain fields with intercropped plants

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “Ant abundance and Cosmopolites sordidus damage in plantain fields as affected by intercropping” (A.G. Dassou, D. Carval, S. Dépigny, G.H Fansi, P. Tixier, 2015) [1]. This article describes how associated crops maize (Zea mays), cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) and bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) intercropped in the plantain fields in Cameroun modify ant community structure and damages of banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus. The field data set is made publicly available to enable critical or extended analyzes.


a b s t r a c t
The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "Ant abundance and Cosmopolites sordidus damage in plantain fields as affected by intercropping" (A.G. Dassou, D. Carval, S. Dépigny, G.H Fansi, P. Tixier, 2015) [1]. This article describes how associated crops maize (Zea mays), cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) and bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) intercropped in the plantain fields in Cameroun modify ant community structure and damages of banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus. The field data set is made publicly available to enable critical or extended analyzes.
& The three crops maize (Zea mays), cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), and bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) were intercropped in a plantain experimental field in order to determine their effects on banana weevil regulation Experimental features The relationship between the associated plants, predatory ants and banana weevil damages were determined Data source location Njombé, Cameroon, 4°34 0 11.33″N; 9°38 0 48.96″E

Data accessibility
The data are available with this article

Value of the data
The data presents the abundance of sampled ants in each crop associated to plantain and could be used by others researchers.
The weevil damages on the banana bulb were measured by using the Vilardebo method and could be compared to others weevil damage studies.
This data allows other researchers to extend the statistical analyses.

Data
The dataset of this article provides information on the abundance of ant taxa in the cultivated plants intercropped with the plantain and the weevil damages. The Figs. 1-7 show the abundance of ant taxa in the crops associated to plantain. Table 1 shows the weevil damage.

Funding sources
This work is part of a Ph.D. thesis of Anicet Dassou and was funded by CIRAD, France (AIRD grant) and the C2D project.