AntWeb tutorial

for v0.7.0

AntWeb is a repository that boasts a wealth of natural history data, digital images, and specimen records on ant species from a large community of museum curators.

## Installation ```r install.packages("AntWeb") ``` or you can install the latest development version. ```r library("devtools") install_github("ropensci/AntWeb") ```

## Usage ### Searching through the database As with most of our packages, there are several ways to search through an API. In the case of AntWeb, you can search by a genus or full species name or by other taxonomic ranks like sub-phylum. To obtain data on any taxonomic group, you can make a request using the `aw_data()` function. It's possible to search easily by a taxonomic rank (e.g. a genus) or by passing a complete scientific name. __Searching by Genus__ To get data on an ant genus found widely through Central and South America ```r library("AntWeb") leaf_cutter_ants <- aw_data(genus = "acromyrmex") leaf_cutter_ants$count ``` ``` #> [1] 777 ``` __Searching by species__ You can request data on any particular species ```r (acanthognathus_df <- aw_data(scientific_name = "acanthognathus brevicornis")) ``` ``` #> [Total results on the server]: 4 #> [Args]: #> genus = acanthognathus #> species = brevicornis #> [Dataset]: [4 x 16] #> [Data preview] : #> url #> 1 http://antweb.org/api/v2/?occurrenceId=CAS:ANTWEB:casent0280684 #> 2 http://antweb.org/api/v2/?occurrenceId=CAS:ANTWEB:casent0637708 #> catalogNumber family subfamily genus specificEpithet #> 1 casent0280684 formicidae myrmicinae Acanthognathus brevicornis #> 2 casent0637708 formicidae myrmicinae Acanthognathus brevicornis #> scientific_name typeStatus stateProvince country #> 1 acanthognathus brevicornis Colombia #> 2 acanthognathus brevicornis Madre de Dios Peru #> dateIdentified habitat #> 1 #> 2 2013-09-12 Bamboo forest ex sifted leaf litter #> minimumElevationInMeters geojson.type decimal_latitude decimal_longitude #> 1 NA #> 2 252 point -13.14142 -69.623 ``` You can also limit queries to observation records that have been geoferenced ```r (acanthognathus_df_geo <- aw_data(genus = "acanthognathus", species = "brevicornis", georeferenced = TRUE)) ``` ``` #> [Total results on the server]: 3 #> [Args]: #> genus = acanthognathus #> species = brevicornis #> georeferenced = TRUE #> [Dataset]: [3 x 16] #> [Data preview] : #> url #> 1 http://antweb.org/api/v2/?occurrenceId=CAS:ANTWEB:casent0637708 #> 2 http://antweb.org/api/v2/?occurrenceId=CAS:ANTWEB:casent0914659 #> catalogNumber family subfamily genus specificEpithet #> 1 casent0637708 formicidae myrmicinae Acanthognathus brevicornis #> 2 casent0914659 formicidae myrmicinae Acanthognathus brevicornis #> scientific_name typeStatus stateProvince country #> 1 acanthognathus brevicornis Madre de Dios Peru #> 2 acanthognathus brevicornis Darien Panama #> dateIdentified habitat #> 1 2013-09-12 Bamboo forest ex sifted leaf litter #> 2 #> minimumElevationInMeters geojson.type decimal_latitude decimal_longitude #> 1 252 point -13.14142 -69.623 #> 2 500 point 7.71667 -77.7 ``` It's also possible to search for records around any location by specifying a search radius. This will search for data on a 2 km radius around that latitude/longitude ```r data_by_loc <- aw_coords(coord = "37.76,-122.45", r = 2) ``` ### Mapping ant specimen data As with the previous ecoengine package, you can also visualize location data for any set of species. Adding `georeferenced = TRUE` to a data retrieval call will filter out any data points without location information. Once retrieved the data are mapped with the open source [Leaflet.js](http://leafletjs.com/) and pushed to your default browser. Maps and associated `geoJSON` files are also saved to a location specified (or defaults to your `/tmp` folder). This feature is only available on the development version on GitHub (`0.5.2` or greater; see above on how to install) and will be available from CRAN in version `0.6` ```r acd <- aw_data(genus = "acanthognathus") aw_map(acd) ``` 

## Citing To cite `AntWeb` in publications use:
> 'Karthik Ram' (2014). AntWeb: programmatic interface to the AntWeb. R package version 0.6.1. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=AntWeb

## License and bugs * License: [CC0](http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/) * Report bugs at [our Github repo for AntWeb](https://github.com/AntWeb/issues?state=open) [Back to top](#top)