User talk:Megarhyssa6/Megarhyssa

Outline feedback
Hi Gabriel, really great start on the article! The assignment was just to write a rough but detailed outline, so you're already ahead of the game with the first article draft. The sections overall are split up nicely. I have a few suggestions for the organization of the article:

You might consider pulling out the first sentence of the General Description section and putting that sentence in the "lead" of the article. Then, because the rest of the General Description section is about morphological differences among species, you might rename that section "Morphological Variation".

Generally the articles work best organized from broad scale to narrow scale, so the Geographic Range and Habitat section might work well placed before the Morphological Variation section.

For the reproduction section, you should consider organizing the info into two subsections: one titled Reproductive Cycle, and another titled Mate Choice and Competition. The Reproductive Cycle section would include all the mechanics of how the male and female genitalia fit together, how females seek out trees, where the females oviposit, etc. The Mate Choice and Competition section would include the info on how females choose among males, and how males squeeze into the holes to compete with other males in post emergence mating, and the other strategies males use to compete for access to reproduction.

Be sure to add references for every fact listed in the article using the reference tool (the quotation mark button).

Overall this is looking really great! Elioeilish (talk) 02:32, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Megarhyssa peer review
Good introduction. You can link “Ichneumonidae” to a wiki page.

Geographical range and habitat section

This section does a good job introducing where we can find the genus. Then, it details where exactly each species is located.

Ecology section

You do not have to state “A study carried out by …” You can state “These three species are capable of coexisting with each other because their ovipositors have different lengths (Pook, Sharkey, Wahl, 2016).”

You can add “This species of wasp is considered to be largest species in Hymenoptera order” in the introduction.

Morphological variation section

Switch 2.3 to 3.8 cm (0.9 to 1.6 inches) for the male and the female measurements, mainly because the scientific community uses the metric system.

Suggestion -- “Both sexes can be distinguished because females posses have an extremely slender, and long organ to lay eggs called the ovipositor, which is much longer than the body itself. Including the ovipositor, the length can range from 5 to 10 cm (2 ro to 4 inches)”

The descriptions of all the species is a good addition. If you can, add images to show the differences.

Reproduction section --

Reproductive cycle section

Add what larvae the female is laying her eggs on, specify that the eggs are being laid on Tremex columba larvae.

What time of the year are eggs being laid?

You do not need “spending much of their adult life waiting for other adults to emerge” after stating that males emerge first.

You do not need “In a study carried out by Owen S. Crankshaw, and Robert W. Matthews from June to August in 1978, and from May to August of 1979, they discovered” -- you can cite them at the end of the sentence. This information can also be applied in the Ecology section of this page.

You do not need “A study carried out by Harold Heatwole, Donald M. Davis and Adrian M. Wenner showed” -- cite at end

What exactly is “the hole”? The female genital organ?

The first paragraph can be combined with the second paragraph, just make sure that it flows.

Male Choice and Competition section

It is interesting how males can detect females by the way they chew! -- I liked the addition to this section.

If males have a hard time finding females of the same species, is there a higher chance of mistakes? Do males inseminate other species? How do males ensure that they mate with the same species? -- maybe find some information to add about this?

Overall, I think you have a good start! It was easy to follow with the headings and subheadings. There are some changes I suggest, but overall this was great :) DGOMEZ14 (talk) 21:57, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Peer Review
Overall, this is shaping up to be a great article! It is very well-written and detailed, and the framework is all there and largely filled out. Throughout the article, I'd recommend using the Wikipedia citation tool rather than typing out each citation. Also, if you can get some of the information within paragraphs and between them to flow a bit more, then readers will have a logical, easy-to-follow path through the different topics in the article.

The introduction is short, but that might not be a bad thing! If you wanted to make it longer, you could add a short description about the general appearance of the genus. You should also probably have a citation for the fact that Ichneumonidae have the highest wasp biodiversity in the world.

Geographical range and habitat

You might consider linking the words "paleartic," "deciduous," and "sympatric" to other wikipedia articles, if they are available.

Make sure to italicize all species names.

The phrasing of the first two sentences is a little confusing. It is said that there are four paleartic species, and then it says "They are widespread across the US," leading me to think that the four paleartic species are also the species that are in the United States. You could specify the paleartic species in the first sentence, or start the second sentence with "Other members of the genus" instead of "they."

In the last sentence, it is said that M. nortori was an introduced species, but it's native range is not mentioned.

Ecology

This paragraph is very detailed and interesting, but it focuses mainly on the ecology of three particular species rather than the genus as a whole. Are the traits found in this species applicable for all members of the genus? For the particular fact of how deep M. atrata can puncture, is that similar for all species within the genus?

You might want to link "allopatric speciation" to a separate wikipedia article.

The sentence, while a very cool fact, feels a bit out of place. Perhaps the discussion of body size would fit better in the morphological variation section?

Morphological Variation

Make sure that you are citing your sources!

I don't think that you need to restate the genus before the species for each section, as you did with Megarhyssa atrata in this section and the previous section.

In previous sections, you did not state the the specific epithet for each species, but here you did. I don't believe that they are necessary, but if you want to include them, i would suggest using them consistently throughout the article.

Given that you are discussing what the ovipositor is in this section, maybe it should go before the previous section, where the ovipositor was mentioned?

Reproductive Cycle

This section jumps rather abruptly into a sequence describing the reproductive cycle. You may want to start with an introductory statement, perhaps saying "The reproductive cycle of Megarhyssa begins with the female locating an available larvae to lay her egg on or nearby."

In general, you don't need to say what studies information came from. You could just state the information that you got from the study and cite it.

Much of the information in the second paragraph of this section is repeated from the previous paragraph or earlier in the article. I'd recommend combining these two paragraphs together, and potentially removing repeated information.

What is an intersegmentary segment?

In the last sentence, you switch from saying "larvae" to calling it the "host," which could be a bit confusing.

Male Choice and Competition

Consider rephrasing the first sentence: "Megarhyssa males have been known identify the sex of other individuals before emergence takes place."

How do the males compete for the females, if multiple individuals are aggregating around the emergence holes?

Is there a specific name for the sensory organ that wasps use to detect mates and hosts?

Do males mate with multiple females? If so, do they discriminate between females based on the sounds of their chewing?

I'm not sure that this last paragraph was supposed to be there. I would definitely be interested in learning about the role of sex-specific strategies on flight evolution, though! Phasmatidae (talk) 19:26, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

Peer Review (2nd Round)
Hello! Good article! I think your draft had a lot of interesting information and was organized well. I think you give a good explanation of the reproductive cycle of these organisms. I was wondering how it came to be that males emerge first?

I was also confused by this sentence in the morphological variation section and was thinking it may need some rewording: "It can be easily distinguished from the species M. macrurus (Linnaeus), M. greenei (Viereck), and M. nortori (Cresson), which show yellow and brown striped color patterns that resemble much, reason for which these other species require identification by specialists."

During mate competition, how the males compete with each other for mates, that is, do they fight or have any displays to compete with other males? I would also just recommend that you maybe use the citation tool when citing your references.

Overall, I think this is a good and informative draft!! SiriSngi (talk) 20:50, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

Peer Review 2
Hi Gabriel! Nice job with your second draft! You do a great job of making your main points clear and concise. I think you could expand on some ideas you already have to make some more connections to class. Below are some questions I had either about unclear content or ways to expand and make connections to class:

- Morphological Variation: Why do adults show variation in color? Is this important for reproduction? For example, does it indicate good genes to obtain more food that results in more coloration?

- Mate Choice and Competition: I was unsure what this sentence meant: “Megarhyssa males have been known to detect other individuals to emerge before the emergence happened.” I think it would be helpful to explicitly describe why this relates to mate choice/competition.

- Mate Choice and Competition: Is the sound of biting different between males and females? Does this allow males to detect females and prepare to compete? - Mate Choice and Competition: Is there a competitive advantage of having better sensory organs?

- Mate Choice and Competition: What did you mean by the movement that flight makes possible for parasitoids? I think it would be helpful for the reader to have more explanation on this idea.

My main suggestion is to ensure that the ideas in the Mate Choice and Competition are explained in a way someone who doesn’t know anything about your organism can understand them and then explicitly relate them to ideas in class like mate choice in competition. You did a great job describing their reproductive cycle and making it interesting. Your final article is going to be great! Sgreene11 (talk) 18:56, 15 April 2024 (UTC)