User:Porrhothele

About Me
I'm Porrhothele, alias Dr Phil Sirvid, an Invertebrates Curator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

I'm interested in New Zealand arachnids, especially the taxonomy and evolution of New Zealand spiders and harvesters.

I am a beginner at Wikipedia editing.

Creation of Wikipedia articles in my area of expertise[edit]
I’ve been briefed on the conflict of interest rules including those around being a subject-matter expert editing within my area of expertise. I understand that I’m expected to make sure that my external role and relationships in my field of expertise do not interfere with my primary role when editing Wikipedia i.e. to further the interests of the encyclopaedia.

Because of the topic of my expertise and specialisation I will be citing peer reviewed journal papers that I have authored or co-authored. I will also be writing Wikipedia articles on species where I was a key researcher in the process of taxonomic identification for that species. I am aware of the possibility of a conflict of interest issue with citing my own published work. Papers I have authored or co-authored will only be cited if that paper is relevant to the topic and conforms to the content policies of Wikipedia. Any citation will not be excessive nor will it place undue emphasis on my work. I will be citing the most recent quality research available whether it is by me or someone else.

Te Papa Arachnid Types Project
In this project, I am uploading images of type specimens of spiders and harvesters held by Te Papa and writing articles about them. Many of the species are very obscure and poorly known, and my hope is to spark curiosity about them. Here's an example.

Critter of the Week Project
As I sometimes assist with information for Radio of New Zealand's Critter of the Week series, it seems like a good idea to join the project team to help write pages on the organisms featured such as the tailed forest spider.