Talk:Macrotera portalis

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kew8888. Peer reviewers: Orchidabar, Rasikareddy1019.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:23, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Peer Review
I suggest adding an image to the article to give an overall more comprehensive entry about this bee. I changed the organization of some of the sections by putting some sections under larger subheadings and placing the Mating Behavior section closer to the other behavior related sections. I think that the Description and Identification sections can be elaborated on and the appearances of males and females can be described in more detail. I also think adding specific sections on foraging behaviors and diets could be beneficial as well. Overall, good article! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rasikareddy1019 (talk • contribs) 17:56, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

I noticed this article does not have a distribution map or conservation status, which I think would be valuable information to add to this article. If the conservation status is unknown, I would just state that explicitly because some readers might benefit from knowing that if they are doing a basic search of this species. I noticed there are several words hyperlinked, but it is highlighted in red because there is no Wikipedia article associated with said hyperlinks. I removed those links because they do not add anything necessarily helpful to the article, which is what the hyperlinks are for. This article is organized well. I enjoyed reading it and felt this author did a great job of focusing on male vs. female behavior. Orchidabar (talk) 19:59, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Suggestions
Overall the article was informative and well written. Especially good job with the sections on some of the gender specific behaviors/characteristics (male dimorphism, female cell construction, etc). That said, I am not sure why you put the “male dimorphism” section under behavior. I feel like this section would make a lot more sense under “description/identification”. It just seems out of place under behavior. I also think that your section on “Oligolectic bees” seems out of place; I think it would be best to place this information under behavior and title it accordingly as it is a pattern of behavior. Your “predator/parasites” section also makes it seem as though there are exactly two parasites and one predator that interact with P .portalis-- is this true, or is this only in relation to the one study you are citing from? I feel like an all inclusive list of predators/parasites is most likely a little longer; you should make this clear (make it clear that the section is talking about one study in particular). I went ahead and added some hyperlinks to a couple of words throughout the article (biome, desiccation, pathogens, etc.). Overall, the article provides good details and is well written-- great work! Jkottapalli (talk) 21:38, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Another Peer Review
This is an excellent article. It is very well written, organized and detailed, especially the section on “Sexual distinction.” I did find a few grammatical mistakes that I fixed. I added hyperlinks to bivoltine and oligolectic because this may be a confusing term for those who are not familiar with the words. I also added hyperlinks to defecate, pupate, broods, larva, metamorphoses, lateral, mandibles, pollen, overwintering, annually and Solenopsis molesta. I changed the capitalization of the headings in accordance with Wikipedia Manual of Style, which states that only the first word of each heading should be capitalized. I would recommend adding a picture of the bee species. It would really add to the article. I would also recommend adding a section on territorial or defense behavior if possible. Mohp7 (talk) 03:47, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi, I'm an undergraduate at Washington University and I am commenting on this page as part of a class assignment. I thought the article was very well-written and informative. My only issue is with the section on Conservation status. I felt that this small section does not contribute anything significant to the article. Besides that, I thought the article was very good. Callisons (talk) 01:15, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Helpful Edits and Suggestions
I enjoyed reading this article as it was very thorough, especially in the sections under Sex distinction and “Behavior.” I did make some edits and have some improvement suggestions. For instance, In the introduction, I changed “preferences” to “prefers.” I also hyperlinked “pollinate” to “pollination” since “pollinate” is mentioned in the introduction. I divided the information under “Description and Identification” into two paragraphs to more clearly organize the information. I split up the following sentence, “Differences are that P. portalis has more females in each nest, P. texana are not dimorphic, and Perdita texana nests are usually not reused for too many generations” into two sentences: “P. portalis, however, has more females in each nest. P. texana are not dimorphic, and their nests are usually not reused for too many generations.” Finally, I included a hyperlink to “larva” when it is mentioned first under “Distribution and habitat”; I removed the hyperlink under “Colony cycle” when larva is next mentioned. To improve this article, it might be helpful to define who Danforth is when he is first mentioned under Distribution and habitat; if he is a researcher, this should be mentioned to qualify the information given. It would also be helpful, if possible, to include which flower species Perdita portalis prefers as well as images of these flowers. Additionally, any images associated with the characteristics or behaviors of this bee would add to the article’s appeal. Cmbakwe (talk) 02:44, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Species name is incorrect
The current species name is Macrotera portalis. This and the other species of the genus Macrotera were split from Perdita by Michener (2000) "Bees of the world" (first edition).

There currently doesn't appear to be a wiki page for the genus Macrotera. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zportman (talk • contribs) 17:10, 19 April 2017 (UTC)
 * ✅ M. A. Broussard (talk) 22:50, 27 April 2017 (UTC)