Talk:Megaselia scalaris

Untitled
Overall, this a great article. Very readable and descriptive. The information in this article is interesting and well organized.Ento431ke (talk) 21:38, 17 April 2008 (UTC)ento431ke

Good and well organized article. Liked the table on the right with the picture and information listed. May consider adding in some actual cases and examples of when coffin flies were used in a crime or something. These are always interesting. -Lauren —Preceding unsigned comment added by Runwild2006 (talk • contribs) 22:32, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

See WP:FOOT for details on how to format references, in particular this section on how to name a tag so it can be used more than once. Happy editing and welcome to Wikipedia. &mdash; BillC talk 23:37, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest only having a references section rather than both references and bibliography. It seems a bit redundant to have both. Alexxmacc (talk) 16:17, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

This article is organized and written well, but it could use just a bit more detail on its significance in forensic entomology.Hurricane979 (talk) 17:17, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Good article. You should go to the Phoridae article and where it says Coffin fly, you should make that link to your article. Other than that there is a lot of good information.--Kmh2003 (talk) 08:20, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikispecies
Hey guys! I just wanted to let you all know about the Wikispecies project []. Your article fits in with their project, so look into it. ABrundage, Texas A&amp;M University (talk) 20:37, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

peer review
Here are a few suggestions that could improve your article. Weilingz (talk) 01:54, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Instead of an introductory section, Wikipedia articles generally have a lead section that is basically a short, independent summary of the article. This lead section comes before the first heading. You can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lead
 * Is there a photo of fly anatomy available? Including a picture would add clarity.
 * "Many of the flies within the family Phoridae prefer nectar as an energy source; however, Megaselia scalaris is an omnivorous specie." you are missing the letter s at the end of that sentence.
 * make sure to italicize Megaselia scalaris every time it is written!

When I finished reading your article I noticed that in the references nummber 9 and 16 are the same and you also repeat some of the same ones in references and sources. Also, it might be neat if you could get a picture of an excavated buried body with these flies on it, but I don't know how easy that would be to get approved for Wikipedia use. Phodges09 (talk) 00:04, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

I read over your article and found there to be some great information. I think that some discussion on the taxonomy could be helpful besides just the one line blip. Otherwise, I think this is an interesting topic and good job- I like the pictures. AMFaris (talk) 16:25, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Because the taxonomy section is so short, the author should consider moving it to the article's introduction. Under "Current and future research" "cultured" needs to be defined in the article or linked to another article because a layman might not be able to discern it from other meanings of the word. Also, why is the neurophysiology of Megaselia scalaris considered "odd" by the author? Catgirl357 (talk) 02:51, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Hey guys, fantastic article. Only a few things I would change personally about the article, under the sections when talking about the egg and the larvae, be sure to phrase it "eggs" and "larvae" of the flies to indicate that you're refering to all of them within the group. Other than that, it's fantastic. Lebl37 (talk) 06:20, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

The most important thing I noticed was that there is no information on how deep they can burrow to get to a body. This should definitely be one of the points that is touched on under the forensic importance heading because it tells you the maximum depth that the body could have been buried at. Other than that all the information is great. I noted a few technical things throughout the article that aren't necessarily mistakes, but changing them may make your article flow a little more smoothly. These are just suggestions, so look over them and decide whether you want to make changes or not: - Description: You might want to add a link for "flagellomere" or to the "Antennae" article that explains what they are for non-experts; "Major bristles of [the/its/their/this species'] body are characteristically..."; you might want to explain "tibia" and "femur" as they pertain to entomology since no article exists about arthropod body structure (that I could find, anyway) - Egg and Larva: "The development of each life cycle depends on the environmental conditions in which the larva are feeding or being reared but it generally occurs “at 22-24°C, the first instar lasts 1-2 days, the second 1-2 days, and the third 3-4 days before pupation and a further 1-2 days before pupation." This sentence is awkward and it would be better to split it into 2 separate sentences. (e.g. The development of each life cycle depends on the environmental conditions in which the larva are feeding or being reared. Although studies show that generally, "..." - Pupa and Adult: "allowing their sperm to mature and be ready by the time the females emerge" the [and be ready] isn't necessary here - Feeding Habits: "Megaselia scalaris uses such in order to exit their pupal casings" This sounded a little strange to me when I read it.  Maybe put in "them" instead of "such" to make it flow better (I don't think it's wrong the way you have it, but it stood out to me as oddly worded.) - Habitat: After saying that there are "two main reasons" you need to identify them with "First,..." & "And second,..."; "They use carrion to lay eggs on to feed their young" You should substitute another word for one of the "to"s in this sentence; I went ahead and changed the sentence that previously said, "Often, Megaselia scalaris may be the only forensic entomological evidence if the carrion is obstructed or concealed in a place that is hard for other insects to reach," for lack of continuity in the singular tense at the end.

Overall this is a good article. There are many references and citations used which increases your articles credibility. Some of the references are listed multiple times and should be edited. The References section seems to be a repeat of the Bibliography. I would just stick to one of the two. I would edit the last sentence just to be nit-picky. Be sure to emphasize that forensic entomologists can find a rough time of death and not an exact time of death. I think this will help out your article immensely.(Jaycewright (talk) 09:42, 15 April 2008 (UTC))

The article was good and informative. A suggestion I have would be to add a picture of the fly anatomy or further define some of the terms used in the section such as "flagellomere." Some of the descriptions get confusing if they're not properly defined or shown (which a diagram would really help in this case). Hando09 (talk) 05:21, 16 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I have been searching for a fitting picture of the anatomy. When and if I find one, I will post it!  Thanks.  --Jordanmurphy (talk) 03:04, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

You could add more to the taxonomy section such as how Herman Lowe discovered the flies and if any what kinds of experiments he did with them. Horsenerd09 (talk) 05:46, 16 April 2008 (UTC)horsenerd09

derivation of specific epithet
In my latin dictionary, scalae, -arum is scaling ladders/stairs/ladder. I suspect this is the derivation but would be good to double check in an entomological source. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:12, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

ICT
I was reading the article, and I thought that you should emphasize insect colonization time rather than post mortem interval. I was led to believe in reading your section on importance to forensic entomology that you could actually determine the time of death using this fly species. But if you remember from lecture, we can only say approximately a person has been dead on these days as far as we know.--Amandamartinez06 (talk) 07:38, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

a fellow ENTO classmate...
Just one suggestion: It seems kind of unecessary to create a whole, 'nother section with its own headline and everything just to say who the name came from, doesn't it? I realize it's an important piece of information, but maybe you could just mention this factoid in your introduction...

Also, in your 'Importance to f. entomology' section, maybe you could make it a point to mention that post mortem intervals are just educated guesses... All they provide is an estimated time of death, sometimes ranging from days to years. Maybe you could use the term that Prof. Brundage suggested, "insect colonization time" Cvela (talk) 01:30, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

The article overall is fairly well written. There is a lot of good info on scuttle flies. However, one flaw I saw lays in the "current and future research section". There is simply no detail into any of the experiments done on the flies. You should either eliminate this section, or add results to the experiments. Simply stating an experiment was done is not enough info. Cawinkler (talk) 22:15, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

This article did a very good job of describing the taxonomy and behavior of the coffin fly, and the up close detailed pictures were awesome. I would talk more about the different depths of a body and how they affect the timing of the insect rearing, under the Forensics section. cinco0513 —Preceding comment was added at 16:08, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I found the article to be very informative. The only thing i would have done differently was add a small discussion about the urban pest issues this fly has. This Phoridae fly can be a house hold pest in peoples attics. Other than that, this was a great article. You covered all the forensic issues very well. (Orb80cool (talk) 22:09, 17 April 2008 (UTC))

This was a very useful, clear description of the coffin fly. I have several suggestions. You have a link that does not link to anything (Ommatrichia), you should remove this link. In the description section you should explain what a flagellomere is, some readers might not be familiar with that word. In the egg and larva section you have a direct quote. I think you should rephrase this information in your own words so you don't have to use the quotes, they are distracting. Also, in the habitat section, maybe change "thrive in predominantly moist unsanitary vicinities" to "unsanitary areas." I'm not sure vicinities is the word you meant. In the importance to forensic entomology section you forgot to italicize the species name in one instance. Overall I thought this was a great article and the pictures added alot to the quality.entogirl88 (talk) 19:21, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it is necessary to have the taxonomy section on its own like that. You might consider merging it with another section. Other than that it looks like a great article.Hietpas08 (talk) 19:21, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I think this is a well rounded article. I like the fact that the entire habitat of the fly is mentioned rather than just the single focus of dead bodies. These flies are also apparently a indicator that sewer lines are damaged, who new?--Angelar.steinhauer (talk) 02:19, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

This is a good general article. I think that you should consider adding a medicinal importance because there is research going on concerning this fly causing myiasis of human intestinal tract and by adding this and other important subjects would make your article well rounded.--Escaladebball29 (talk) 03:03, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Well organized article. It was very easy to read and it fits the encyclopedia format. I thought it was really interesting that they have sharp teeth, but they don't actually use them for biting purposes and for digesting purposes only. You mentioned that the species have been used to identify cases of neglect. I didn't know that coffin flies were used to do that. Example of those cases would give a better understanding of how they were used. On the top picture, instead of using coffin fly, maybe use the scientific name there. Good job on the article. Best js 2007 (talk) 16:19, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

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