Wikipedia:WikiProject Lepidoptera/Article formats

Article Format
A suggested format for articles on species of Lepidoptera is given below. All entries need not have all categories, but present sections should fall in this order. Extra categories are acceptable so long as they are relevant and in logical order.


 * Taxobox: The Taxobox template (which appears top right in the article) is a standardized summary of information for species, with a photograph with the appropriate license, information on its systematics, distribution and conservation status. See the Taxobox section below.
 * 1)	Name of organism: scientific and common
 * 2)	Lead section: This is the most important section of an article since many people will not read further and will use this paragraph to decide whether the piece is worth reading. It will summarize the article overall, emphasizing the important or novel aspects of this particular species, and mentioning any controversies. It should make it clear why this butterfly or moth is important. Anything mentioned here should be covered in more detail in the rest of the piece. You are likely to need to change this if it already exists but you are modifying the piece a lot. This section is usually one to four paragraphs.
 * 3)	Table of Contents: This is automatically generated after there are three or more headings, and will appear in a left-hand box.
 * 4)    Description: Physical and behavioral characteristics that make this species different from its close relatives.
 * 5)	Geographic range
 * 6)	Habitat
 * 7)	Home range and territoriality
 * a. male defense of places likely to attract females
 * b. home range
 * c. genetic population structure
 * 8) 	Food resources
 * a.	caterpillars
 * i.	host plant preferences and selection (selection only possible for a few like army worms)
 * ii.	non-plant foods (e.g. predatory larvae)
 * iii.	plant stimulants and deterrents to herbivory
 * b.	adults
 * i.	adult diet (e.g. nectar, feces, urine, corpses, tree sap, honey dew, pollen)
 * ii.	pollination
 * 9)	Parental care
 * a.	Oviposition
 * b.	Egg guarding
 * c.	host plant learning and selection for egg laying
 * i.	color
 * ii.	odor
 * 10)	Social behavior
 * a.	Caterpillar sociality
 * b.	Adult sociality (e.g. social roosts, mud puddling)
 * 11)	Life history
 * a.	Life cycle (egg, caterpillar, pupa, adult)
 * b.	Senescence
 * 12)	Parasitic butterflies and moths
 * a.	Host
 * b.	Mechanisms of overcoming host
 * 13)	Migration
 * a.	Local or regional dispersal
 * b.	Whole scale migration over long distances
 * 14)	Enemies
 * a.	predators
 * b.	parasites
 * c.	diseases
 * d.	immunity
 * 15)	Protective coloration and behavior
 * a.	Cryptic and mimicking color and behavior
 * b.	Batesian
 * c.	Müllerian
 * 16)	Genetics
 * a.	Subspecies
 * b.	Hybridization
 * c.	Genomes
 * 17)	Genetics of color patterns
 * a.	Pigmentation and structural coloration
 * b.	Genes
 * 18)	Mating
 * a.	Mate searching behavior
 * b.	male/male interactions
 * i.	lekking
 * ii.	displaying
 * iii. aggression
 * c.	female/male interactions
 * i.	pheromones
 * ii.	mate choice
 * iii. courting
 * iv.	copulation, number of mates
 * v.	nuptial gifts
 * 19)	Physiology
 * a.	Flight
 * b.	Vision
 * i.	Photoreceptors
 * ii.	Color vision
 * iii. Eye sexual dimorphism
 * c.	Olfaction (smell)
 * i.	Olfactory receptors
 * ii.	Odors
 * d.	Gustation (taste)
 * i.	Gustatory receptors
 * ii.	Sexual dimorphism in taste
 * e.	Hearing
 * i.	Sound generation
 * ii.	Hearing organs
 * f.	Thermosensation
 * g.	Thermoregulation
 * h.	Digestion
 * i.	Diapause
 * 20)	Microbiome
 * a.	Gut
 * b.	Specialized bacteria not in gut
 * 21)	Mutualism
 * a.	With plants
 * b.	With animals
 * c.	With microbes
 * 22)	Interactions with humans
 * a.	agricultural use
 * b.	crop plant pollination
 * c.	pest of crop plants
 * d.	pest of forests
 * e.	pest of beneficial insects
 * f.	citizen science
 * g.	beauty and art
 * 23)	Conservation
 * a.	Habitat loss
 * b.	Host plant or host organism issues
 * c.	Migration issues
 * d.	As indicators of overall habitat quality because of multiple life stages and complex dependencies

Taxoboxes
The full taxobox guide is located at Taxobox usage.

Detailed taxonomic information, including notes on how taxa are defined and how they vary between different systems, belongs in the article proper. Where possible, however, a standard table will be provided to allow easier navigation between related groups and quick identification of what sort of organisms are being discussed. These are called taxoboxes. A typical taxobox is shown at right (it belongs on the top right of the page Cetacea).

There are three main sections to the taxobox:
 * A header showing the name of the group, sometimes followed by a representative image.
 * A table showing the placement of the group in a typical classification system.
 * A footer, whose content varies, showing the binomial name or a species, or a list of subgroups for higher taxa.

Some items that are often included, but are not (necessarily) standardized, include:
 * Range map (see, for example, Orca)
 * Synonyms (See the taxobox shown here and Euploea radamanthus)

Position: The taxobox generally belongs at the top right corner of the article, unless it has been decided otherwise on the relevant talk page - for instance, if the article is not primarily about the biological group.

For examples of taxobox see :-
 * WikiProject Lepidoptera/Family taxobox example
 * WikiProject Lepidoptera/Genus taxobox example
 * WikiProject Lepidoptera/Species taxobox example

Categories of articles

 * Category:Lepidoptera is the main container category.
 * Category:Butterflies.
 * Category:Moths.

Examples of articles
See commander butterfly Limenitis procris and imperial moth Eacles imperialis as an example of a typical species account.

Some species have extremely little information and are virtually little more than stubs, so most of these headings should be commented out. See imperial Apollo butterfly Parnassius imperator augustus as an example. Such species in a single genus probably would merit consolidation in the near future, as per the accepted usage.

In some cases, the species has additional interesting information which merits separate sections and sub-sections. These are issues such as taxonomy, polymorphy, mimicry, ant-association, migration or any such feature characteristic to that species and warranting a detailed treatment by itself. Hence additional headings are provided on an as-required basis. The sequence of headings, sections and sub-sections may also be changed to represent the information in the best and most convenient manner possible.

See plain tiger butterfly Danaus chrysippus and common Mormon butterfly Papilio polytes as such examples.