User talk:Sarzie99/Ellipsaria lineolata

External Review
Hi Sarzie99 - My name is Jolie, and I'm the Project Coordinator for the WikiProject Limnology & Oceanography team. Your external review for your article on Ellipsaria lineolata is posted below. If you have any questions about your review, or would like to clarify anything, please feel free to let me know by posting a message on my talk page and I'll pass it along to your external reviewer. Thanks, and all the best as you wrap up your Wikipedia editing assignment!

EXTERNAL REVIEW - The student provides much more information than what was found in the original article. Here are some comments that I think will help improve the article. The student indicates that this species is mostly common in the midwestern states. However, its range extends throughout the Mississippi River Drainage and it is equally common in Southeastern states. Although I think the student alludes to that I think it is important to make sure the audience does not think that this organism is found in lower number in these regions. The species is native not only to the Mississippi and Mobile but also to the Tennessee and Cumberland River.

The common name of Ellipsaria lineolata is the Butterfly Mussel. I would suggest changing the words “frequently referred to” to “its common name is”.

Usage

In general, I would keep using the abbreviated scientific name throughout the article and referred to it as ''E. lineolata. E. lineolata'' has been in fact used for buttons but I think it is important to say that it is not the only mussel. Several species of freshwater mussels have been historically harvested for buttons. I think it is great information, but I would change it a little bit. Maybe “ As other freshwater mussels, E. lineolata has bee used for pearl buttons”. The same could be applied for the pearl industry sentence.

Conservation

I think one of your sentences from the description could be move to the conservation section. “Its lives buried in sand or gravel substrates in large rivers with fast currents.[2]”. Additionally this species has been found in reservoirs in the Tennessee River (Williams, James David, Arthur E. Bogan, and Jeffrey T. Garner. Freshwater mussels of Alabama and the Mobile basin in Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee. University of Alabama Press, 2008.)

Although IUCN does not list Ellipsaria lineolata this species is considered critically imperiled in some states like Louisiana or Kansas ("NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 2021-04-30.)

I would change the sentence “since this species occurs in large numbers…” to something like “since the primary habitat of this species is the Mississippi river basin, habitat alteration ….. in this river might be especially harming it”.

As well noted by the student, E. lineolata depends on host fishes, in this case, I think it would be important to mention in the conservation section that literature states that the host fish for this species is Aplodintus grunniens  or the Freshwater drum and that this mussel is a long-term brooder and may be found gravid during any month of the year ( Coker, Robert Ervin, et al. Natural history and propagation of freshwater mussels. US Government Printing Office, 1921.)

Overall, I think the student did a great job highlighting the important descriptors and concerns for this species. Congratulations! Could be pretty cool if we could get a picture without copy right.

JoGDelta (talk) 01:50, 30 April 2021 (UTC)