Talk:Polistes biglumis

Zroscope Comments
Wikilinked some non-wikilinked words. May have skipped over some I thought were well known enough. The picture caption is a bit short to me. I'd add the name of the wasp species, even though it's obvious. Under "Description and identification" I'm assuming "differential" is used correctly in this sentence, "In addition to a differential in the abundance of fat layers in their abdomens,...". Under "Colony cycle", "P. biglumis may have been selected for suppressed worker production in the first brood, the only brood not destroyed by parasites, so that new queens would survive to produce new colonies.". It may just be me confused, but do you mean ''P. biglumis was selected evolution wise? That its genes survived and it is the species it is today due to natural selection, etc.? Under "Egg discrimination", sentence "Cues for distinguishing the eggs are located on the eggs themselves", are the cues odors/chemicals/scents? Zroscope (talk) 01:41, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments and repairs! As for the picture caption, I emulated other Wikipedia articles that had received "Good Article" ratings. In addition, no further information was given by the uploader and I did not want to cite any incorrect information. Furthermore, the picture is located under the name of the species, which serves to clarify its purpose. Additionally, in the "Description and identification" section, you are right in assuming that "differential" is used in the right context. Under "Colony cycle," I added the word "naturally" before the word "selected" in order to clarify that sentence. Finally, under "Egg discrimination," according to the article in which I found this information, the researchers were only able to discover that the wasp could differentiate between eggs but did not address how. Thanks again! Marecto (talk) 07:16, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Review of Article
For this article, I changed some grammar and sentence structures. I added some hyperlinks where I thought was necessary. Overall, the article was very thorough and each section showed a great deal of detail. Under relatedness, I suggest putting in the exact numerical sex ratio. I suggest adding in some more images if possible. Also, it would be beneficial to have a section on diet considering every wasp has a specific diet. This would enable the article to flow well with the rest of the articles in the WikiProject Vespidae. Mhimmelrich (talk) 01:57, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestions and repairs! As you suggested, I would like to include an exact numerical sex ratio as well as a description of this wasp's specific diet, however, as of now, no current information exists that would allow me to do so. In addition, I added more images like you suggested. Thanks again! Marecto (talk) 04:16, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Overall suggestions
I am a bit confused about this section. Under parasitism, you mentioned the P. atrimandibularis would destroy all of the host eggs. I wrote the Wiki page for P. atrimandibularis, and I believe they do not destroy all the host eggs because they need them to become workers to take care of their (the parasite's) larvae/to run the colony since P. atrimandibularis do not have workers. Did you mean they did that when invading secondary P. biglumis nests to bring larvae to the primary nest as you mentioned in Efficacy? Overall this is well written, detailed article. Perhaps you could add a section on diet, more pictures, and elaborate more on the exact size of them/ how much bigger are they than their relatives? Setoiris (talk) 03:45, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestions! As I mentioned in the parasitism section immediately after the sentence you pointed out, the first P. biglumis brood will survive because it will have emerged early and escaped destruction by the queen. The P. atrimandibularis wasp will utilize this set of P. biglumis workers. In addition, elsewhere in the article I mentioned that as a species overall, P. biglumis workers are often simply nonexistent in P. biglumis nests, which actually occurs as an adaptation to parasitism. Additionally, I would like to add a section on diet as well as a more elaborate description on the wasp's exact size, etc. However, at this time, currently no such information exists. As per your suggestion, I added more pictures. Thanks again! Marecto (talk) 04:27, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion to make it a Great Article
Your article is very comprehensive and provides a great amount of information on the species. I had added a bunch of links and edited some grammar details throughout your article. I think the Description and identification section could be broken up, since it currently is a bit large. You should add a sub-section underneath the category that breaks up the 3 paragraphs to further simplify the article. Under the subsection of Egg Discrimination, within the Behavior category, it would be great if you could elaborate on what the "cues for distinguishing the eggs" actually are. This would make the section more substantial and provide greater detail on how this process works. Under Sex Ratio, I think it would be beneficial to briefly explain what female biased sex ratio means. I think you should add more numbers and statistical data under Relatedness. In addition, I searched Polistes biglumis on wikimedia, and there were two other pictures that you should incorporate into your article! Insert them in areas that discuss their description and nesting behavior. Otherwise, I think your article is very comprehensive and interesting. Good job! Chiararosenbaum (talk) 04:45, 20 November 2014 (UTC) Chiararosenbaum

Thanks for your comments! You suggested I break up the description and identification section as it is a bit large. However, it is currently under 300 words and fits Wikipedia's preference for sections being between 200 and 600 words. Furthermore, there is no natural position at which to break up the section. If I were to break up the section as you suggested with headings rather than just breaks as it is currently presented, rather than simplify the article, I feel that it would unnecessarily complicate it. In addition, in the article that provided the research for the section you mentioned under "Egg Discrimination," the researchers were only able to determine that the wasps had a method for recognizing eggs that was specific to the eggs themselves, but not what that method was. Finally, i added the other pictures as you suggested. Thanks again! Marecto (talk) 07:13, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Review of Article
The Polistes biglumis article seems to cover all of the good article criteria. It is verifiable, unbiased, and well-written in easily digestible prose. It is broad in scope, addressing everything from the behavior of the species to its interactions with other species to the biochemical composition of its secretions. It is illustrated and stable. All of the material seems to be drawn from reputable, peer-reviewed sources by experts in the field, which greatly increases the quality of the article itself. Although it has a C-ranking, the amount of knowledge available on this relatively obscure wasp limits any expansion of the page, so I disagree with the C. If more information were available, an expansion on the sections regarding mating and kin selection would be most beneficial because those sections seem to be the most vague and could use more detailed analysis. The nest predation behavior could also be a subject of further interest as a question of intra-species competition, and a more elaborate discussion of such behavior might highlight the long-term impact on each colony and the distribution of the species as a whole following a predation event orchestrated by a queen. Kulshrestha51 (talk) 11:57, 10 September 2015 (UTC)