Talk:Polistes bellicosus

Photo
I have added a photo featuring P. bellicosus from Wikipedia Commons. --Dkrinock (talk) 16:09, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Defense
From your article, it looked like predators greatly affect a P. bellicosus colony. Therefore, I added a section on their defense and how the females bite and sting in large groups to protect the nest. --Dkrinock (talk) 16:09, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Revisions in Overview and Colony Cycle Sections
The first revision I made was to italicize the name in the overview. Under the “Colony Cycle” section, I added more to the first sentence in the last paragraph where you mention that females can be grouped in 4 categories. I thought it would be helpful to just list them in that sentence. It appears the categories are foundress, workers, queens, and gynes. Please correct me if I am wrong. Jazdeb (talk) 22:18, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Other potential changes/additions
Overall, I thought this article was very well written and informative. You provide a wide range of sections to describe P. bellicosus. I am not too familiar with the species but the term “bellicose” means demonstrating aggression or a tendency to fight. Is there any information about how the origin of this name came about? I think it would be interesting to include another behavior section focusing on aggression in this species if there is any relevant research available.

Under the “Taxonomy and Phylogeny” section, I am trying to understand what you mean by the fact that P. bellicosus is the only Polistinae tribe found in many different “global habitats”. I thought they were primarily found in Houston, Texas. I recommend revising the sentence or adding more contextual information.

Under the “Distribution and Habitat” section, consider revising this sentence: “Colonies naturally occur on Baccharis sp., Ilex vomitoria, and Rubus sp. in native prairies at Brazos Bend State Park, near Houston, Texas.” A possible revision could be “Colonies of Baccharis sp., Ilex vomitoria, and Rubus sp. naturally occur in native prairies at Brazos Bend State Park, near Houston.” I did not make the change because I am not sure if this sentence holds the original intended meaning.

Under the section “Nest Selection,” you state “When foundresses attempt to establish nests in new sites, there is the possibility that the site is disadvantageous to colony initiation.” I would consider discussing exactly how the new site is disadvantageous. Jazdeb (talk) 22:18, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Very well written and thorough article, but I have one point that I am having trouble understanding. You say that defense is very important to P. bellicosus yet you give no real successful tactics that they use for defending themselves. Nor do you site attack patterns. Are the nests more likely to be attacked successfully when the adult wasps are away? Are females not considered adult wasps? This section needs a lot of clarification. It would be nice if at least one successful strategy of defense is identified. A map of the general location of these wasps would be very helpful also.This is a very good article and I cannot think of much more to change that hanst already been brought up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cnemelue (talk • contribs) 23:02, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

Peer Review
Hello, I made a couple minor changes to your article. I added a couple of links to wasp species you list in the article and fixed one grammatical mistake in the Colony cycle section. I also changed your section heading to sentence capitalization since that is what Wikipedia typically prefers. I also had a couple of suggestions of things that could improve the article. First it would be great if you could add a distribution map and more images if you can find them. Also you should expand the overview to make it more detailed and mention things from all of the sections of your article. I agree with a previous comment that this sentence “only tribe of Polistinae with a cosmopolitan distribution, i.e. it is the only tribe found in many different global habitats” is unclear. Not entirely sure what you meant by cosmopolitan or global habitats. I would remove paper wasp from under synonyms as this is where other species names that are synonymous are placed. Your species is just one example of a paper wasp so it is not needed in the right hand box. I was wondering if under taxonomy and phylogeny if you meant Polistes apaches instead of Polistes apaches? If so there is a page for that wasp you could add a link to. You may want to explain what “chitinized” is and what “pleural lobes” refers to. I think most people would be unfamiliar with those terms. Then, for nest structure is there information you can add that is more specific to your species such as size and construction of the nest? If so I think that would really add to that section. Lastly, it would be great to expand the defense section if at all possible it is very short. Overall, though the article looks good and contains a lot of interesting information! Ashleyearley (talk) 18:44, 18 November 2014 (UTC)