Talk:Phytoseiidae

classmate edit section
The heading on Wolbochia Infections was heavy with information about the pathogen and its affects. Simple editing helped improve the quality of this piece. I added citations to the second and third sentence in the first paragraph. The second paragraph was lacking citations completely. I was unable to add them due to the listed references not having relevant information pertaining to the subject of the second paragraph. I added the subheading of "Gender Determination" to better organize the article. If any of these edits seems incorrect or unnecessary, feel free to make the necessary corrections. Mbastani (talk) 04:59, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Hello Gern Blanston 13! I thoroughly enjoyed your addition to this species page about Wolbachia and its relation to mites. As I read through it, I found some potential edits you might want to address. I am studying a species of wasp that transmits Wolbachia by vertical transfer and I was wondering if you could elaborate on the significance of horizontal transfer for your species. Also, could you explain oogenesis further? I found your thoughts on Wolbachia’s evolutionary implications for this species to be particularly interesting.

Honey4bees (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:00, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

I made minor edits to spelling, grammar, and italicizing the species name. I also reworded some sentences to make them sound clearer, as well as eliminate some redundant word usage. I found your article particularly interesting because, compared to my species (a type of fly) and most of the other Wolbachia articles, it seems as if Wolbachia is more harmful to your species than helpful. Since Wolbachia seems to cause a huge gender gap by making females much more common than males, is it really that beneficial at all? I see that you mention oogenesis as a justification for the dependency, but this section may benefit from a better explanation as to what oogenesis is. Perhaps the possibility for speciation is a potential positive. However, the possibility for extinction is quite devastating to the species. I would suggest finding more studies, if possible, regarding the benefits of Wolbachia to your species, primarily to understand why Wolbachia is still a common infection in your species when it seems so detrimental. Furthermore, delving deeper into why uninfected individuals are unable to mate with infected individuals through a study may be an interesting area to explore. Overall, your section of the article is very interesting and contributes well to the entire species page. Added information on the evolutionary relationships between Wolbachia and your species, including advantages or reasons why Wolbachia persists, may be beneficial. Best of luck!

NeverStopEvolving (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:47, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

First of all, it contains very good information about wolbochia infections in Phytoseiidae. But, I have one suggestion which might make this section easier to understand. I think the first and last paragraphs have very closely related information. If you could somehow rearrange those paragraphs, it would have a better flow. You have mentioned a mechanism of infection and how it is maintained with in a population in the first paragraph and an impact of the mechanism of infection to the population in the last paragraph. If you could organize your information differently, I think it will be better. Overall, great and interesting information. I’m looking forward to see your final draft.

Random6251 (talk) 04:00, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Revision and Response to Peer Feedback
Dr. FF, Based on the suggestions you emailed me, I made several changes to the structure of paragraphs and added new content. I changed the order of the suggested sentenced in the "Biological Control Agents" section in order to make Phytoseiidae's importance as a biological control agent more clear. I addressed the issue of why pesticides increase spider mite populations (it is unknown for certain) and explained why this matters for Phytoseiidae. I added a sentence about Phytoseiidae as a control agent for domestic and foreign populations of spider mites. In the "Wolbachia Infections" section, I completely reworked the paragraph about sexual selection to make the evolutionary mechanisms more clear.

Honey4bees, In regards to horizontal transfer, I wasn't able to find any research saying it occurs in Phytoseiidae. Scientists know it is possible because Wolbachia has been horizontally transferred to uninfected arthropods by infected arthropod parasites. Phytoseiidae isn't involved in any of these interactions as far as I know, so I didn't think that information was relevant enough to add to the article. Let me know if you disagree. Your comment about oogenesis led me to do a little more research, and it turns out that I don't have any sources saying Wolbachia alters oogenesis in Phytoseiidae. It does for other arthropods, but since there's no research about it happening specifically to Phytoseiidae, I decided to remove that part of the paragraph.

NeverStopEvolving, Wolbachia doesn't benefit Phytoseiidae in any way. The reason it is common in the population is because it is passed down through the maternal germ line. Basically, it is in the mother's eggs, so the offspring are born with it. A lot of times, the mothers can't produce eggs without the Wolbachia being present. Because of this, there is really no getting rid of the Wolbachia, even though it is a parasite. The infected organisms make the best of it by evolving to rely on the Wolbachia, either for oogenesis or for gender determination. In this way, they can reduce some of the energetic costs of these functions. I clarified these points a bit better in the article, so hopefully it is more clear now. And hopefully this answers your questions. Gern Blanston 13 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:02, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Gern Blanston Summary of Changes
I added the sections "Lifestyles," "Phytoseiidae as Biological Control Agents," and "Wolbachia Infections." All of this information was brand new for this page and was obtained from peer-reviewed scientific journals. In my most recent (final) edit, I worked on adding more citations, so that each sentence would have an appropriate citation at the end. I also worked on condensing the information, making it more clear and readable, and making sure everything applied to Phytoseiidae. I deleted the subheading, "Gender Determination," because that section contained more information pertaining to Wolbachia than to Phytoseiidae. I condensed the information from that section and added it to the end of "Wolbachia Infections." I kept only the most important information that I believed was necessary to understanding the effects Wolbachia can have on Phytoseiidae. I added links to the pages of "spider mites" and "wolbachia." I added links to this page within the pages for "spider mites" and "whitefly." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gern Blanston 13 (talk • contribs) 21:43, 9 December 2015 (UTC)