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May 2019 Tree of Life Newsletter

May 2019—Issue 002

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Cretoxyrhina by Macrophyseter Bramble Cay melomys by The lorax/Vanamonde93, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Chimpanzee by LittleJerry/Chiswick Chap, reviewed by Tim riley Spinophorosaurus by FunkMonk/Jens Lallensack, reviewed by Enwebb Trachodon mummy by Jens Lallensack, reviewed by Gog the Mild Megabat by Enwebb, reviewed by Jens Lallensack

Newly nominated FAs

Spinophorosaurus by FunkMonk/Jens Lallensack Trachodon mummy by Jens Lallensack

Fundamental changes being discussed at WikiProject Biology

On 23 May, user Prometheus720 created a talk page post, "Revamp of Wikiproject Biology--Who is In?". In the days since, WP:BIOL has been bustling with activity, with over a dozen editors weighing in on this discussion, as well as several others that have subsequently spawned. An undercurrent of thought is that WP:BIOL has too many subprojects, preventing editors from easily interacting and stopping a "critical mass" of collaboration and engagement. Many mergers and consolidations of subprojects have been tentatively listed, with a consolidation of WikiProjects Genetics + Molecular and Cell Biology + Computational Biology + Biophysics currently in discussion. Other ideas being aired include updating old participants lists, redesigning project pages to make them more user-friendly, and clearly identifying long- and short-term goals.

Editor Spotlight: These editors want you to write about dinosaurs

Editors FunkMonk and Jens Lallensack had a very fruitful month, collaborating to bring two dinosaur articles to GA and then nominating them both for FA. They graciously decided to answer some questions for the first ToL Editor Spotlight, giving insight to their successful collaborations, explaining why you should collaborate with them, and also sharing some tidbits about their lives off-Wikipedia.

1) Enwebb: How long have you two been collaborating on articles?

• Jens Lallensack: I started in the German Wikipedia in 2005 but switched to the English Wikipedia because of its very active dinosaur project. My first major collaboration with FunkMonk was on Heterodontosaurus in 2015.
• FunkMonk: Yeah, we had interacted already on talk pages and through reviewing each other's articles, and at some point I was thinking of expanding Heterodontosaurus, and realised Jens had already written the German Wikipedia version, so it seemed natural to work together on the English one. Our latest collaboration was Spinophorosaurus, where by another coincidence, I had wanted to work on that article for the WP:Four Award, and it turned out that Jens had a German book about the expedition that found the dinosaur, which I wouldn't have been able to utilise with my meagre German skills. Between those, we also worked on Brachiosaurus, a wider Dinosaur Project collaboration between several editors.

2) Enwebb: Why dinosaurs?

• JL: Because of the huge public interest in them. But dinosaurs are also highly interesting from a scientific point of view: key evolutionary innovations emerged within this group, such as warm-bloodedness, gigantism, and flight. Dinosaur research is, together with the study of fossil human remains, the most active field in paleontology. New scientific techniques and approaches tend to get developed within this field. Dinosaur research became increasingly interdisciplinary, and now does not only rely on various fields of biology and geology, but also on chemistry and physics, among others. Dinosaurs are therefore ideal to convey scientific methodology to the general public.
• FM: As outlined above, dinosaurs have been described as a "gateway to science"; if you learn about dinosaurs, you will most likely also learn about a lot of scientific fields you would not necessarily be exposed to otherwise. On a more personal level, having grown up with and being influenced by various dinosaur media, it feels pretty cool to help spread knowledge about these animals, closest we can get to keeping them alive.

3) Enwebb: Why should other editors join you in writing articles related to paleontology? Are you looking to attract new editors, or draw in experienced editors from other areas of Wikipedia?

• JL: Because we are a small but active and helpful community. Our Dinosaur collaboration, one of the very few active open collaborations in Wikipedia, makes high-level writing on important articles easier and more fun. Our collaboration is especially open to editors without prior experience in high-level writing. But we do not only write articles: several WikiProject Dinosaur participants are artists who do a great job illustrating the articles, and maintain an extensive and very active image review system. In fact, a number of later authors started with contributing images.
• FM: Anyone who is interested in palaeontology is welcome to try writing articles, and we would be more than willing to help. I find that the more people that work on articles simultaneously with me, the more motivation I get to write myself. I am also one of those editors who started out contributing dinosaur illustrations and making minor edits, and only began writing after some years. But when I got to it, it wasn't as intimidating as I had feared, and I've learned a lot in the process. For example anatomy; if you know dinosaur anatomy, you have a very good framework for understanding the anatomy of other tetrapod animals, including humans.

4) Enwebb: Between the two of you, you have over 300 GA reviews. FunkMonk, you have over 250 of those. What keeps you coming back to review more articles?

• FM: One of the main reasons I review GANs is to learn more about subjects that seem interesting (or which I would perhaps not come across otherwise). There are of course also more practical reasons, such as helping an article on its way towards FAC, to reduce the GAN backlog, and to "pay back" when I have a nomination up myself. It feels like a win-win situation where I can be entertained by interesting info, while also helping other editors get their nominations in shape, and we'll end up with an article that hopefully serves to educate a lot of people (the greater good).
• JL: Because I enjoy reading Wikipedia articles and like to learn new things. In addition, reviews give me the opportunity to have direct contact with the authors, and help them to make their articles even better. This is quite rewarding for me personally. But I also review because I consider our GA and FA system to be of fundamental importance for Wikipedia. When I started editing Wikipedia (the German version), the article promotion reviews motivated me and improved my writing skills a lot. Submitting an article for review requires one to get serious and take additional steps to bring the article to the best quality possible. GAs and FAs are also a good starting point for readers, and may motivate them to become authors themselves.

5) Enwebb: What are your editing preferences? Any scripts or gadgets you find invaluable?

• FM: One script that everyone should know about is the duplink highlight tool. It will show duplinks within the intro and body of a given article separately, and it seems a lot of people still don't know about it, though they are happy when introduced to it. I really liked the citationbot too (since citation consistency is a boring chore to me), but it seems to be blocked at the moment due to some technical issues.
• JL: I often review using the Wikipedia Beta app on my smartphone, as it allows me to read without needing to sit in front of the PC. For writing, I find the reference management software Zotero invaluable, as it generates citation templates automatically, saving a lot of time.
  • Editor's note: I downloaded Zotero and tried it for the first time and think it is a very useful tool. More here.

6) Enwebb: What would surprise the ToL community to learn about your life off-wiki?

• FM: Perhaps that I have no background in natural history/science, but work with animation and games. But fascination with and knowledge of nature and animals is actually very helpful when designing and animating characters and creatures, so it isn't that far off, and I can actually use some of the things I learn while writing here for my work (when I wrote the Dromaeosauroides article, it was partially to learn more about the animal for a design-school project).
• JL: That I am actually doing research on dinosaurs. Though I avoid writing about topics I publish research on, my Wikipedia work helps me to keep a good general overview over the field, and quite regularly I can use what I learned while writing for Wikipedia for my research.

Get in touch with these editors regarding collaboration at WikiProject Dinosaurs!

Marine life continues to dominate ToL DYKs

May DYKs

• ... that the Pacific baza has been rumoured to imitate the calls of tree frogs when hunting, inducing them to return the call? (1 May)
• ... that 'Dumelow's Seedling' is known by more than 50 alternative names? (2 May)
• ... that staghorn hydrocoral grows on a mollusc shell occupied by a hermit crab? (3 May)
• ... that the burrow of the spoon worm Maxmuelleria lankesteri is sometimes modified by fish and crustaceans that take up occupancy there? (4 May)
• ... that the hairy sea squirt is preyed on by the Oregon hairy triton? (5 May)
• ... that the splendid hermit crab almost exclusively chooses to inhabit a shell on which a colonial hydroid is living? (8 May)
• ... that crinoids are closely related to sea urchins and starfish? (14 May)
• ... that El Drago Milenario, located in Parque del Drago, Tenerife, is the largest and oldest known specimen of Dracaena draco? (16 May)
• ... that the deepwater crinoid Notocrinus virilis broods its young in pouches on its arms? (17 May)
• ... that some ancient trees of the olive cultivar 'Bidni' have been recognised as "national monuments" in Malta? (18 May)
• ... that sturgeons are ancient fishes, widely sought after for caviar and more critically endangered than any other group of animal species? (19 May)
• ... that when several of the small bivalve molluscs Lasaea rubra occupy the same rock crevice, they are likely to be clones? (21 May)
• ... that the small crustacean Pseudamphithoides incurvaria builds itself a home out of forded sea tumbleweed, a brown seaweed that is distasteful to fish? (23 May)
• ... that while a red Irish lord can change color, it is not a yellow Irish lord? (24 May)
• ... that the whiteknee hermit crab is benefitted by the presence of the hedgehog hydroid but harmed by the barnacle Clistosaccus? (25 May)

Discuss this issue

You are receiving this because you added your name to the subscribers list of the WikiProject Tree of Life. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, please remove your name.

Sent by DannyS712 (talk) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 03:44, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Teahouse Hosts

Hello. Over at the Teahouse we're having a bit of a 'spring clean' by removing old entries from the list of Hosts that new users see. As you don't appear to have been very active there for some time, your 'host profile' has been removed from the list. But please don't let that put you off contributing again in the future - either by signing back up as a Host to assist on a regular basis, or just dropping in whenever you fancy helping out - especially as it's great to have input from people with an interest in flora and fauna.

Thank you for all your past help and support for new users at the Teahouse. Hope to see you there again soon. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 00:15, 10 June 2019 (UTC) "

thanks

for your recent support of tagging Australian biota items - appreciated !! JarrahTree 04:57, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

@JarrahTree: no problem. It's much easier now that I have that Rater gadget. Cheers. --Nessie (talk) 14:44, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:Braintree by Vox Telecom

Hello, NessieVL. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Braintree by Vox Telecom".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. CptViraj (📧) 18:00, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

@CptViraj: I did not create this article, JacquiCaldeira did. --Nessie (talk) 18:33, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

If you like really like wikignoming....

Some subproject taskforce notes would be good for tracking - For instance, a takforce for each era in paloeontology (Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Paleozoic, and older...might be worth discussing on Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Palaeontology#Task_forces? Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 23:43, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:WikiProject Pteridophytes articles

A tag has been placed on Category:WikiProject Pteridophytes articles requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the category has been empty for seven days or more and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:54, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for June 23

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Bacilloviridae, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Sulfolobus islandicus rod-shaped virus (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 22:04, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Pteridophytes articles by quality

A tag has been placed on Category:Pteridophytes articles by quality requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the category has been empty for seven days or more and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:03, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Pteridophytes articles by importance

A tag has been placed on Category:Pteridophytes articles by importance requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the category has been empty for seven days or more and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:04, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for July 1

An automated process has detected that you recently added links to disambiguation pages.

India National PolioPlus (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver)

added a link pointing to IEC

Mosaic virus (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver)

added a link pointing to Single-stranded RNA virus

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 11:39, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Category:Taxobox articles possibly missing a taxonbar

This isn't really your fault, but when running the bot on large categories, could you do that at night/when most everyone is sleeping, at least until this is fixed/improved. Basically, the bot will need to process the ~1000 articles of that category before it can process anything else. Let's say it takes ~1 minute per article to process, that's ~16 hours without anyone else being able to use the bot! Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 21:51, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

@Headbomb: I'm sorry, I hadn't realized. I'll restrain myself. --Nessie (talk) 23:05, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

No worries. Like I said, not your fault. If anything this highlighted the problem, and will lead to improvements. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 13:23, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Whose night? Peter coxhead (talk) 18:49, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: I assume the most activity on enwiki correlates with Eastern time, right?

It would make sense, but I've never seen any stats. Certainly my watchlist fills up more over my (UK) night than my day. Peter coxhead (talk) 20:40, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

The editing community is centered somewhere around UTC+0. Could be UTC +1/+2 if it's more Europe/Africa, or UTC-1/-2 if it's more Americas. So the least traffic should occur somewhere around UTC Midnight, but you could also wait till Midnight on the American Westcoast if you want to clear the US lump.

There used to be hourly traffic stats somewhere, but I can't find them anymore. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 20:47, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Electric smoking system

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Electric smoking system. Legobot (talk) 04:27, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

June 2019 Tree of Life Newsletter

June 2019—Issue 003

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Masked booby by Casliber and Aa77zz, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Rook (bird) by Cwmhiraeth, reviewed by J Milburn Vernonopterus by Ichthyovenator, reviewed by Super Dromaeosaurus Campylocephalus by Ichthyovenator, reviewed by Super Dromaeosaurus Unionopterus by Super Dromaeosaurus, reviewed by Ashorocetus Big Cat, Little Cat by Barkeep49, reviewed by J Milburn Félicette by Kees08, reviewed by Nova Crystallis

Newly nominated content

Masked booby by Casliber Adelophthalmidae Plains zebra by LittleJerry Letter-winged kite by Casliber

Relative WikiWork

Project name	Relative WikiWork
Cats	4.79
Fisheries and fishing	4.9
Dogs	4.91
Viruses	4.91
ToL	4.94
Cetaceans	4.97
Primates	4.98
Sharks	5.04
All wikiprojects average	5.05
Dinosaurs	5.12
Equine	5.15
Bats	5.25
Mammals	5.32
Aquarium fishes	5.35
Hypericaceae	5.38
Turtles	5.4
Birds	5.46
Australian biota	5.5
Marine life	5.54
Animals	5.56
Paleontology	5.57
Rodents	5.58
Amphibians and Reptiles	5.64
Fungi	5.65
Bivalves	5.66
Plants	5.67
Algae	5.68
Arthropods	5.69
Hymenoptera	5.72
Microbiology	5.72
Cephalopods	5.74
Fishes	5.76
Ants	5.79
Gastropods	5.8
Spiders	5.86
Insects	5.9
Beetles	5.98
Lepidoptera	5.98

Spineless editors overwhelmed by stubs

Within the Tree of Life and its many subprojects, there is an abundance of stubs. Welcome to Wikipedia, what's new, right? However, based on all wikiprojects listed (just over two thousand), the Tree of Life project is worse off in average article quality than most. Based on the concept of relative WikiWork (the average number of "steps" needed to have a project consisting of all featured articles (FAs), where stub status → FA consists of six steps), only seven projects within the ToL have an average rating of "start class" or better. Many projects, particularly those involving invertebrates, hover at an average article quality slightly better than a stub. With relative WikiWorks of 5.98 each, WikiProject Lepidoptera and WikiProject Beetles have the highest relative WikiWork of any project. Given that invertebrates are incredibly speciose, it may not surprise you that many articles about them are lower quality. WikiProject Beetles, for example, has over 20 times more articles than WikiProject Cats. Wikipedia will always be incomplete, so we should take our relatively low WikiWork as motivation to write more articles that are also better in quality.

Editor Spotlight: Showing love to misfit taxa

We're joined for this month's Editor Spotlight by NessieVL, a long-time contributor who lists themselves as a member of WikiProject Fungus, WikiProject Algae, and WikiProject Cephalopods.

1) Enwebb: How did you come to edit articles about organisms and taxonomic groups?

• Nessie: The main force, then and now, driving me to create or edit articles is thinking "Why isn't there an article on that on Wikipedia?" Either I'll read about some rarely-sighted creature in the deep sea or find something new on iNaturalist and want to learn more. First stop (surprise!) is Wikipedia, and many times there is just a stub or no page at all. Sometimes I just add the source that got me to the article, not sometimes I go deep and try to get everything from the library or online journals and put it all in an article. The nice thing about taxa is the strong precedent that all accepted extant taxa are notable, so one does not need to really worry about doing a ton of research and having the page get removed. I was super worried about this as a new editor: I still really dislike conflict so if I can avoid it I do. Anyway, the most important part is stitching an article in to the rest of Wikipedia: Linking all the jargon, taxonomers, pollinators, etc., adding categories, and putting in the correct WikiProjects. Recently I have been doing more of the stitching-in stuff with extant articles. The last deep-dive article I made was Karuka at the end of last year, which is a bit of a break for me. I guess it's easier to do all the other stuff on my tablet while watching TV.

2) Enwebb: Many editors in the ToL are highly specialized on a group of taxa. A look at your recently created articles includes much diversity, though, with viruses, bacteria, algae, and cnidarians all represented—are there any commonalities for the articles you work on? Would you say you're particularly interested in certain groups?

• Nessie: I was a nerd from a time when that would get you beat up, so I like odd things and underdogs. I also avoid butting heads, so not only do I find siphonophores and seaweeds fascinating I don't have to worry about stepping on anyone's toes. I go down rabbitholes where I start writing an article like Mastocarpus papillatus because I found some growing on some rocks, then in my research I see it is parasitized by Pythium porphyrae, which has no article, and how can that be for an oomycete that oddly lives in the ocean and also attacks my tasty nori. So then I wrote that article and that got me blowing off the dust on other Oomycota articles, encouraged by the pull of propagating automatic taxoboxes. Once you've done the taxonomy template for the genus, well then you might as well do all the species now that the template is taken care of for them too. and so on until I get sucked in somewhere else. I think it's good to advocate for some of these 'oddball' taxa as it makes it easier for editors to expand their range from say plants to the pathogenic microorganisms of their favorite plant.

My favorite clades though, It's hard to pick for a dilettante like me. I like working on virus taxonomy, but I can't think of a specific virus species that I am awed by. Maybe Tulip breaking virus for teaching us economics or Variola virus for having so many smallpox deities, one of which was popularly sung about by Desi Arnaz and then inspired the name of a cartoon character who was then misremembered and then turned into a nickname for Howard Stern's producer Gary Dell'Abate. Sorry, really had to share that chain, but for a species that's not a staple food it probably has the most deities. But anyway, for having the most species that wow me, I love a good fungus or algae, but that often is led by my stomach. Also why I seem to research so many plant articles. You can't eat siphonophores, at least I don't, but they are fascinating with their federalist colonies of zooids. Bats are all amazing, but the task force seems to have done so much I feel the oomycetes and slime moulds need more love. Same thing with dinosaurs (I'm team Therizinosaurus though). But honestly, every species has that one moment in the research where you just go, wow, that's so interesting. For instance, I loved discovering that the picture-winged fly (Delphinia picta) has a mating dance that involves blowing bubbles. Now I keep expecting them to show me when they land on my arm, but no such luck yet.

3) Enwebb: I noticed that many of your recent edits utilize the script Rater, which aids in quickly reassessing the quality and importance of an article. Why is it important to update talk page assessments of articles? I also noticed that the quality rating you assign often aligns with ORES, a script that uses machine-learning to predict article quality. Coincidence?

• Nessie: I initially started focusing on WikiProject talk page templates because they seem to be the key to data collecting and maintenance for articles, much more so than categories. This is where you note of an article needs an image, or audio, or a range map. It's how the cleanup listing bot sorts articles, and how Plantdrew does his automated taxobox usage stats. The latter inspired me to look for articles on organisms that are not assigned to any ToL WikiProjects which initially was in the thousands. I got it down to zero with just copypasta so you can imagine I was excited when I saw the rater tool. Back then I rated everything stub/low because it was faster: I couldn't check every article for the items on the B-class checklists. Plus each project has their own nuances to rating scales and I thought the editors in the individual projects would take it from there. I also thought all species were important, so how can I choose a favorite? Now it is much easier with the rater tool and the apparent consensus with Abductive's method of rating by the pageviews (0-9 views/day is low, 10-99 is med, 100-999 is high...). For the quality I generally go by the ORES rating, you caught me. It sometimes is thrown off by a long list of species or something, but it's generally good for stub to C: above that needs formal investigation and procedures I am still learning about. It seems that in the ToL projects we don't focus so much on getting articles to GA/FA so it's been harder to pick up. It was a little culture shock when I went on the Discord server and it seemed everyone was obsessed with getting articles up in quality. I think ToL is focusing on all the missing taxa and (re)organizing it all, which when you already have articles on every anime series or whatever you can focus on bulking the articles up more. In any event, on my growing to-do list is trying to get an article up to FA or GA and learn the process that way so I can better do the quality ratings and not just kick the can down the road.

4) Enwebb: What, if anything, can ToL and its subprojects do to better support collaboration and coordination among editors? How can we improve?

• Nessie: I mentioned earlier that the projects are the main way maintenance is done. And it is good that we have a bunch of subprojects that let those tasks get broken up into manageable pieces. Frankly I'm amazed anything gets done with WikiProject Plants with how huge its scope is. Yet this not only parcels out the work but the discussion as well. A few editors like Peter coxhead and Plantdrew keep an eye on many of the subprojects and spread the word, but it's still easy for newer editors to get a little lost. There should be balance between the lumping and splitting. The newsletter helps by crossing over all the WikiProjects, and if the discord channel picked up that would help too. Possibly the big Enwiki talk page changes will help as well.

5) Enwebb: What would surprise the ToL community to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?

• Nessie: I'm not sure anything would be surprising. I focus on nature offline too, foraging for mushrooms or wild plants and trying to avoid ticks and mosquitos. I have started going magnet fishing lately, more to help clean up the environment than in the hopes of finding anything valuable. But it would be fun to find a weapon and help solve a cold case or something.

June DYKs

June DYKs

• ... that the deep-sea coral species Gersemia juliepackardae was named for Julie Packard, executive director of Monterey Bay Aquarium, for her work as an ocean conservationist? (1 June)
• ... that despite a genus name referring to its dull leaves, Astilbe chinensis was celebrated as the most important new hardy perennial by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1902? (2 June)
• ... that the pea crab Tunicotheres moseri lives inside the water-filled chamber of a sea squirt? (4 June)
• ... that the primrose family and the evening primrose family are not closely related? (5 June)
• ... that Calma glaucoides has such a rich diet of eggs that it does not need an anus? (6 June)
• ... that the pea crab Calyptraeotheres garthi effectively castrates its slipper limpet host, but breeding resumes if the crab is removed? (11 June)
• ... that if the disc coral Cycloseris cyclolites gets buried in sediment, it can "float" itself free? (16 June)
• ... that the sea cucumber Leptopentacta elongata has a U-shaped or S-shaped body and occupies a burrow in the seabed? (17 June)
• ... that Al Hoceima National Park is one of the few locations where the ribbed Mediterranean limpet survives? (18 June)
• ... that the marine worm Themiste pyroides is unusual in that it forms swarms when breeding? (20 June)
• ... that cut branches of the small tree Erythrina berteroana are used to make living fence posts? (26 June)
• ... that the ripe seed pods of Brachystegia eurycoma burst explosively and throw out the large disc-shaped seeds? (28 June)
• ... that Swedish entomologist Carl H. Lindroth suggested that more than 40 species of North American ground beetle were inadvertently transported from Europe in ship's ballast? (29 June)
• ... that the sea hedgehog is a cannibal? (29 June)

Discuss this issue

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sent by ZLEA via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:29, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar!

		The Nessie Barnstar
		Thanks for everything you do around here to keep things running. Also for introducing me to the concept of magnet fishing :) Enwebb (talk) 21:41, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

Oh jees, this is too much. Thank you though. Just glad someone else is going to have fun cleaning up our waterways 🙂--Nessie (talk) 23:04, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

Your submission at Articles for creation: Pseudoparenchymatous (July 17)

Your recent article submission to Articles for Creation has been reviewed! Unfortunately, it has not been accepted at this time. The reason left by Boothsift was:  The comment the reviewer left was: Please check the submission for any additional comments left by the reviewer. You are encouraged to edit the submission to address the issues raised and resubmit when they have been resolved.

• If you would like to continue working on the submission, go to Draft:Pseudoparenchymatous and click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window.
• If you now believe the draft cannot meet Wikipedia's standards or do not wish to progress it further, you may request deletion. Please go to Draft:Pseudoparenchymatous, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window, add "{{db-self}}" at the top of the draft text and click the blue "publish changes" button to save this edit.
• If you do not make any further changes to your draft, in 6 months, it will be considered abandoned and may be deleted.
• If you need any assistance, you can ask for help at the Articles for creation help desk, on the reviewer's talk page or use Wikipedia's real-time chat help from experienced editors.

BoothSiftTalks 04:31, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

• @Boothsift: please read Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 144#RfC: Cross-wiki redirects to Wiktionary, as was mentioned in the comment in the article markup, the edit history, and on the talk page. --Nessie (talk) 14:56, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Electric smoking system

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Electric smoking system. Legobot (talk) 04:28, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:Hemilyn Escudero Tamayo

Hello, NessieVL. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Hemilyn Escudero Tamayo".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Lapablo (talk) 22:46, 20 July 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for editing the myxomatosis article

Hi NessieVL! Thanks for italicizing Myxoma virus for me in the myxomatosis article, I did not realize that needed to be done. And also for adding in issue numbers in the footnotes. I was told however by another editor that the reference should include the specific page the foregoing information was on, not the pages of the entire article, so I changed those back. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners, "If the repeatedly used reference is a book or a lengthy paper or article, it is very helpful to have separate page references for specific facts.". Best, Rabbit Vet (talk) 18:13, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Tree of Life Newsletter

July 2019—Issue 004

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

List of felids by PresN Masked booby by Casliber Letter-winged kite by Casliber, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Plains zebra by LittleJerry, reviewed by starsandwhales Ornithogalum umbellatum by Michael Goodyear, reviewed by Jens Lallensack

Newly nominated content

Letter-winged kite by Casliber Megabat by Enwebb Onychopterella by Super Dromaeosaurus Dvulikiaspis by Super Dromaeosaurus Kosmoceratops by FunkMonk Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee by Hunter Kahn Giant golden-crowned flying fox by Enwebb Myxomatosis by Rabbit Vet

Two Tree of Life editors in WikiCup round of 16

The WikiCup, an annual editing competition, is now in its fourth round. Casliber, consistent participant since 2010 and winner in 2016, is currently dominating Group A with 601 points. Largely responsible is the successful Featured Article nomination of Masked booby. The other remaining Tree of Life participant, Enwebb, is participating in her first ever WikiCup. In this round, she has a grand total of...5 points. But with the recent Featured Article nomination of Megabat, she stands to gain 600 points if successful. As it stands, though, it appears that at least one ToL editor is headed to the fifth and final round of 8 contestants, which begins September 1.

Thus far, all participants in the WikiCup have generated 17 Featured Articles, 116 Good Articles, 16 Featured Lists, and 57 Featured Pictures. The Good Article Nominations backlog has been reduced as well, with 286 Good Article Reviews.

Editor spotlight: Photographing the tree of life

For this month's editor spotlight we're joined by Charlesjsharp, a longtime contributor to Wikimedia Commons with a plethora of featured pictures on English Wikipedia.

1) Starsandwhales: How long have you been editing Wikipedia, and how did you get interested? How did you begin your journey of photographing wildlife?

• Charlesjsharp: I uploaded my first pictures to Wikipedia twelve years ago for fun, to show my kids how it works. The pictures of my daughter (static trapeze), my son (Revell), my dog (Border Terrier) and my parents’ home (Tealing) are all still in the articles! I then started to upload wildlife images.

I’d got my first camera aged eight and went on my first safari in the Kruger Park, South Africa in 1970. I was hooked. I switched to digital in 2004, but didn’t buy any high-end lenses till 2014. Such a shame that hundreds of great photos I took before then look so dreadful by today’s quality standards. My 100-400mm lens transformed mammal and bird photography opportunities and when I got my 100mm macro lens in 2016, the whole new world of insects was open for business.

Pied kingfisher eating a chick, photographed by Charlesjsharp

2) S&W: Over the years, you've taken photos of many different organisms from birds to insects to big cats; you have an extensive list of favorite images. Which animals have been the most exciting for you to photograph?

• Charlesjsharp: The trophy animals the hunters used to shoot are the ones I like to shoot too: it was lion, elephant and baboon in 1970. More recently, hunting for tiger by jeep in Kanha National Park in India was exciting and so was searching for jaguar by boat in the rivers of the Pantanal in Brazil. Our encounters with the mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda was amazing, but the actual photography was no challenge.

But photographing animal behaviour is the most exciting and challenging. There’s usually movement and it all happens so fast, like when a bird captures its prey. Every now and then you snap something really unusual – like the cannibal kingfisher

3) S&W: Many articles under ToL have requests for people to add images that can go unanswered. What can the community do to improve the coverage of different organisms on Wikipedia, especially when it comes to images?

• Charlesjsharp: It’s a very time consuming process because the Wikipedia code is cumbersome (*see below). It take an age to upload to Commons: to describe, categorize, geocode. Many of the categories don’t exist so have to be created. If the image is of a subspecies, then all the images have to be checked before you can nominate an image for VI. It’s also takes ages to nominate images for VI and QI on Commons. May be some users use sophisticated tools to lighten the load, but I don’t know if they exist. In other words, Wikipedia is OK, but Commons is a nightmare. Hundreds of really poor quality photos clog up the system and some users are too lazy to filter and edit their nominations.
  

Recently, some thoughtless editor added a ‘caption’ box to Commons. A waste of time. The image title should act as the caption.

I applied for a grant to attend Wikimania, but was unsuccessful. Not much can happen without some funding to kickstart and then drive improvements forward.
Here was my response to the question: "How can we increase the quality and diversity of images being uploaded and, in particular, improve the Featured Picture, Quality Image and Valued Image projects?"

Panther chameleon male, photographed by Charlesjsharp

1. Work together on pre-defined projects to develop a team spirit that will help us develop a set of shared values

2. Through brainstorming, Identify what we need to do to improve the quality and diversity of images being uploaded and, in particular, identify what we need to do to improve the credibility of the Featured Picture, Quality Image and Valued Image projects

3. By sharing our photographic skills, find ways to share skills with the community. Knowledge transfer is time-consuming and we need to set limited objectives and realistic time frames. This will require compromise as individuals have to listen and find ways to agree. This is going to be much easier through face-to-face meetings

3. Identify what we need to do to improve the quality and diversity of images being uploaded (diversity of contributor and diversity in subject) and, in particular, identify what we need to do to improve the credibility of the Featured Picture, Quality Image and Valued Image projects

4. Spend more time talking about values and knowledge transfer than sharing photography tips amongst delegates, then getting all delegates to agree to DO SOMETHING WHEN THEY GET HOME to take things forward.

4) S&W: What advice would you give to people new to photographing wildlife?

• Charlesjsharp: An impossible question unless you know what someone’s objective is. So you’re on your first safari? Borrow or rent a decent camera and a quality 300mm lens. Then read a few of the dozens of free advice pages on the internet. Then when you’re out and about, take the lens cap off and set the camera to fully automatic sports mode. Be ready. If you’ve time, get in the right place (sunlight/background). Watch the animal’s behaviour. Point and shoot. Glance at the screen. If OK, repeat. Only then start playing with the settings to optimise shutter speed, F number and ISO.
  

5) S&W: What would the Tree of Life community be surprised to learn about your life off-wiki?

• Charlesjsharp: I used to be a high-end stamp collector (early USA). My photography is a sort of collecting. And I’m a keen bridge player.

* An example of cumbersome code: getting the layout of my responses to your questions. So dated, and no online spellchecker.

July DYKs

• ... that the wildlife of Senegal includes a critically endangered subspecies of the giant eland and the common Senegal one-striped grass mouse? (July 1)

Cycloseris distorta

Tiny the Wonder, killing rats
at the Blue Anchor Tavern

Episcia cupreata flower

• ... that the free-living, solitary coral Cycloseris distorta (pictured) can subdivide its stony skeleton and form two new individuals? (July 4)
• ... that the wildlife of Nigeria includes 940 species of bird and all eight known species of West African mangrove? (July 6)
• ... that Hypericum olympicum , an Award of Garden Merit winner, is toxic to dogs, cats, and horses? (July 10)
• ... that flyways used by migrating wetland birds have traditional staging points where they can rebuild their energy reserves? (July 12)
• ... that in two species of megabat, males have been observed to produce milk? (July 13)
• ... that the cave-nesting rockwarbler has also been called the "hanging dick" because of its nest? (July 15)
• ... that Strombosia pustulata is one of over two hundred species of tree growing in the Omo Forest Reserve? (July 16)
• ... that Tiny the Wonder (pictured) could kill 200 rats per hour in London's rat-baiting pits? (July 17)
• ... that the clingfish Diplecogaster bimaculata has been photographed cleaning a moray eel? (July 17)
• ... that in South Africa, the mosquito Anopheles funestus used to breed in fast-moving streams but now prefers swamps? (July 18)
• ... that while the leaf shape varies among hybrids of Episcia cupreata (pictured), the flowers always have the same form? (July 19)
• ... that Sommen charrs are a relict population that has survived because of Lake Sommen's great depth, and its cold and oxygen-rich waters? (July 20)
• ... that the extinction of the Bramble Cay melomys was described as the first for a mammal species due to anthropogenic climate change? (July 21)
• ... that Félicette, the first cat in space, was subjected to 9.5 g of acceleration and five minutes of weightlessness? (July 22)
• ... that the fly Phytobia betulae is just 5 mm (0.2 in) long but the tunnel made by its larva inside a birch tree may reach 17 m (56 ft)? (July 23)
• ... that rooks are intelligent birds and can rival or even beat chimpanzees in puzzle-solving tests? (July 24)
• ... that the Guinean striped mojarra is one of the fish caught in the less polluted part of the Ébrié Lagoon (July 27)
• ... that a new disease which is deadly to corals is spreading from the Florida Keys to other parts of the Caribbean? (July 28)
• ... that the yellow-footed honeyguide probably includes beeswax in its diet? (July 30)

Discuss this issue

You are receiving this because you added your name to the subscribers list of the WikiProject Tree of Life. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, please remove your name.

Sent by ZLEA via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:59, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Ornithodoros

Dear NessieVL, with this edit, you have added the following etymology; "The Linnean name derives from ornithos (Greek: ὄρνιθος) and doros (Greek: Δωρόν), meaning "bird" and "gift," respectively."

But ὄρνις is actually the nominative singular and δῶρον would be Romanized as dōron and not as doros. Could you please check your source. I can not find one in the article. Thanks in advance, with kind regards, Wimpus (talk) 19:15, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

For the component "ornitho-", if we want to be nit-picking (which I don't but as usual Wimpus does), perhaps the best wording is as here, i.e. to say it's derived from ὄρνις, genitive ὄρνιθος, meaning 'bird'.

The component "-doros" could be directly derived from -δωρος, a common second component of masculine Greek personal names, meaning 'gift', as in Ἀπολλόδωρος, Apollodoros, gift of Apollo, but -δωρος is in turn derived from δωρόν, so the etymology is almost certainly correct, albeit condensed. However, it does need a source. Peter coxhead (talk) 22:04, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

I do actually disagree with Peter coxhead, as etymoline.com is not explaining the full compound. Without using a source for the full compound, other etymologies could be equally possible. I could similarly analyse ornithodoros as compound consisting of ὄρνις and δορά (=skin/hide), as several words exist in ancient Greek that end on -δορος (see here). Maybe, the animal has a skin resembling that of a bird. So, using sources, to describe the single parts of the compound, and not the full compound, seems like OR. It would be less innocuous, in case there would be no other possibility, but prima facie, my fabricated etymology is equally probable. Wimpus (talk) 14:37, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

And here I can find a third etymology, which explains the full compound as consisting of ornis and doros (Greek δορός = leather sack, is related to the same verbal root as δορά). I hope to make clear that it is actually necessary to use a source that explains the full compound, instead of creating your own etymology based on a source that only explains the separate parts. NessieVL, but maybe you used a reliable source that explained the full compound. So, I am still curious about the source you may have used. Wimpus (talk) 15:12, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

@Wimpus: actually, I don't think we do disagree about Ornithodoros. Please note that I wrote "However, it does need a source." My remarks were based on the assumption that there is a source that says that the meaning is 'bird gift'. However, without such a source, I agree that the element -dor- is too ambiguous.

I do think that it is actually necessary to use a source that explains the full compound is not always true. You have to know the biology of the taxonomic group, what features are used to distinguish species, and what components of names are commonly used. In plants, for example, we know perfectly well what -florus and -phyllus mean (and can use Stearn as a source for the component). In spiders, we know perfectly well what -spinosus means. In mammals, we know perfectly well what -derma means. Scientific dictionaries that explain components of names are fine for the meaning of such words (although, as you have pointed out, they are not always reliable as to the precise form of lexeme normally used as the headword). Peter coxhead (talk) 05:53, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Sorry for the slow reply, I was away for a bit. Anyhow, that edit was from some time ago, so my memory is foggy. I thought the source would be this but it is not. So as that is the case, the best source would be to check the original description by Carl Ludwig Koch. I cannot seem to find it though. Best to remove the etymology for now, until it can be more clearly discerned. --Nessie (talk) 15:16, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:Robert J. Anderson

Hello, NessieVL. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Robert J. Anderson".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia! JMHamo (talk) 12:11, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

@JMHamo: you need to fix your script. I did not create that article. --Nessie (talk) 12:58, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

New WikiProject

There's now a Wikipedia:WikiProject Diptera. I don't know if it will get off the ground, but since you've been working on infrastructure for some other not-very active TOL subprojects, you might want to help get that diptera put together. Plantdrew (talk) 22:37, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

@Plantdrew: thanks for the heads-up. I was not aware. I will Work on it along with the other WPs. Starting with their misspelled talk template, {{WikiProject Dipetra}}. --Nessie (talk) 23:14, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

August 2019 Tree of Life Newsletter

August 2019—Issue 005

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Letter-winged kite by Casliber Megabat by Enwebb Rock parrot by Casliber Adelophthalmidae by Super Dromaeosaurus Giant golden-crowned flying fox by Enwebb, reviewed by Starsandwhales Myxomatosis by Rabbit Vet, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Tylopterella by Super Dromaeosaurus, reviewed by Starsandwhales and Enwebb Kosmoceratops by FunkMonk, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Slender glass lizard by SL93, reviewed by Casliber Guano by Enwebb, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Dvulikiaspis by Super Dromaeosaurus, reviewed by Casliber Rock parrot by Casliber, reviewed by The Rambling Man Leptospirosis by Cerevisae, reviewed by Ajpolino Hepatitis E by Ozzie10aaaa, reviewed by Casliber Cardabiodon by Macrophyseter, reviewed by FunkMonk Clostridium tetani by Ajpolino, reviewed by Chiswick Chap

Newly nominated content

Kosmoceratops by FunkMonk Western yellow robin by Casliber Pekarangan by Dhio270599 Hibbertopterus by Ichthyovenator

What's the relevance of WikiJournals to WP:TOL?

WikiJournal of Science is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal

One publishing pipeline for WikiJSci

Guest column by Thomas Shafee (Evolution and evolvability), Editor in Chief of WikiJournal of Science

The Tree of Life WikiProject and its sprawling phylogeny of daughter projects is one of the largest and most active communities in Wikipedia. It encompasses approximately 570 Featured Articles and well over a thousand Good Articles (second only to military history). The WikiJournal of Science (one of three current journals in the user group) has a few aims that may closely align with the interests of the ToL community.

Review of existing articles

Firstly, WikiJSci can be a complementary system for FA review (getting external review, input, and validity). When an Wikipedia article is nominated (via WP:JAN), journal editors go out to non-Wikipedian academics and researchers who have published on the subject on the last five years and invite them to give feedback comments (e.g. Peripatric speciation and Baryonyx). The resulting changes can then be integrated back into the Wikipedia article.

Attracting new articles and contributors

Getting more editors involved in Wikipedia is always a high priority. WikiJSci can also be a way to encourage new people to contribute articles (especially on missing/stub/start topics). An example of an article that was written from scratch by a group of non-Wikipedians is Teladorsagia circumcincta. This not only resulted in a new Wikipedia page on an underdeveloped topic, but introduced the idea of Wikimedia contribution to a group of people who had previously never considered it.

Images, videos, sound and galleries

The journal can be a way to get multimedia content reviewed or encourage contribution. The same approach could be easily adapted to sounds (e.g. frog mating calls) or videos (e.g. starfish feet motion). It also allows for tracking of those images in new articles via Altmetric (this example has >200, which is bananas). There aren't any biology examples in WikiJSci yet, but the sister medical journal has published a few summary diagrams, photography, and image galleries. Examples include this gallery by Blausen Medical or the diagram of cell disassembly during apoptosis.

Other projects

For those interested in other Wikimedia sister projects, there's also broad scope for interactions with the WikiJournals. Perhaps peer reviewed teaching resources could be useful to sit alongside sets of Wikipedia articles and be integrated into Wikiversity courses (like this or this)? Can sections of Wikidata & Wikispecies be peer reviewed? What are the potential avenues for integration with WikiCite, WikiFactMine, Scholia, etc.? Currently, WikiJSci is aiming to be very flexible and try out different formats so long as they can be externally peer reviewed.

For more info, see the 2019-06-30 Signpost article and the current sister project proposal.

Editor spotlight: Cwmhiraeth

1) Enwebb: You're very prolific with DYKs, with over 2,000 nominations credited (in fact, I'll highlight which DYK nominations this month were yours below). What made you become so involved in this part of Wikipedia? Why should Tree of Life editors nominate articles for DYK?

Cwmhiraeth: I became aware of the WikiCup in 2012 and entered the contest. The scoring structure seemed to me to favour DYKs, and I went to considerable trouble to identify short stubs that could be expanded into qualifying start class articles with multiple bonus points. Casliber introduced me to preparing articles for FAC and Sasata helped me with my first solo FA. I won the WikiCup that year, and repeated that success the following year, after which the Cup got a bit more competitive. By that time, nominating articles for DYK was an ingrained habit, and I have continued doing so ever since, but at a rather slower rate. I do more work behind the scenes at DYK now, reviewing other people's nominations in excess of my QPQ requirement, and building prep sets ready to go on the main page, and I retired from competing in the WikiCup and became a judge instead. I would encourage ToL editors to nominate suitable articles for DYK because it gives great satisfaction to know that hundreds or even thousands of people have appreciated your work, and it provides a foil for the biographies and historical articles that predominate there.

2) Enwebb: I noticed that your DYK nominations reflect a diverse array of flora and fauna, from trees, marine invertebrates, birds, fishes, and mammals. How do you decide what to work on?

Cwmhiraeth: As I look around different articles I keep a note of things I might work on, red links, stub articles that need expanding or places in articles where I would like to add a wikilink but no suitable target page exists. So I have this list, but more often than not I choose a new article to work on based on a Google book that I have been using in a previous article. I like Google books; some of them are really useful for species articles, the main annoyance being when certain pages are permanently unavailable, although I am quite good at tricking the books into revealing pages that they were trying to prevent me from viewing. Eventually I get bored with African rodents, or whatever my present topic is, and move on. I am particularly interested in organisms living in extreme habitats, endangered species, invasive species, pest species, parasites or creatures with interesting behavioural traits.

3) Enwebb: Which of your Wikipedia accomplishments are you most proud of?

Cwmhiraeth: Well, Sea really. Again that was inspired by the WikiCup, and working in collaboration with Chiswick Chap, we took it from virtually nothing, little more than a list of seas, through DYK and GA, culminating in a really tough FA. That was very satisfying (as were the 1000 odd points it gained me at the WikiCup). In complete contrast was the article Tree. I completely rewrote it in a sandbox as an entry for the "Core contest". The previous version had been quite short with a section on "Record breaking trees" which I hived off into a separate article. My new version was immediately challenged and an edit war would have erupted had I not decided to retire from the fray. My version had some serious flaws, I had never studied botany and I had used a book source which misled me. However, after corrections, my version largely remained in place and I later joined Chiswick Chap in bringing the article to GA status.

4) Enwebb: What motivates you to keep contributing? What's your 10,000 ft view (pardon the non-SI) of the community and Tree of Life?

Cwmhiraeth: I think Wikipedia is a really great project. The idea of Wikipedia as a pool of knowledge contributed to by thousands of individuals in hundreds of countries is inspiring. It would be nice if we had no vandalism and everyone co-operated with everyone else in an amicable spirit, but as we are all human, it does not quite work out like that. I like to think of my efforts as a legacy that will continue in existence after I am gone.

6) Enwebb: How did you first become interested in natural history?

Cwmhiraeth: When I was young I had an elderly aunt who used to come to stay and who would take me for walks in the countryside, during which we would watch birds and identify wild flowers. She would take me out at weekends from my girls-only boarding school and we would search for orchids on the Wiltshire Downs. My school was not geared up for science, we just did general science for O-levels, and when it came to A-levels, I was the only pupil in my year to do zoology and chemistry, and one of only two to do physics, for which we had to cycle off to the grammar school on the other side of town. I wanted to be a vet, but was discouraged by my father, obtained a BSc in biochemistry and ended up in an unrelated job. If I were to live my life again, things might work out differently, but then I dare say we could all say that!

August DYKs

Weebill

Nanhaipotamon macau

P. lutzii (yeast phase)

Cannonball mangrove

Ruspolia nitidula male

Female kob and calf

• ... that falguera, a plant known from only one valley in Spain, is threatened by rock climbers and by road maintenance? (1 August)
• ... that Dioscorea chouardii is known from a single crag in the Pyrenees and has been monitored using scaffolding and telescopes? (3 August)
• ... that the tree Humbertia madagascariensis, whose durable timber is used in heavy construction, is a member of the morning glory family? (4 August)
• ... that the new pine knot-horn is a serious pest of maritime pine plantations? (5 August)
• ... that William Pope created "the first comprehensive, well executed pictorial record of Canadian birds"? (7 August)
• ... that fronds of the seaweed Halimeda tuna each consist of a single cell? (8 August)
• ... that Elongatoolithus, Macroolithus, and Nanhsiungoolithus were the first types of fossil eggs to be given names in the modern classification system? (9 August)
• ... that the maple Acer beckianum was described from a piece of petrified wood found near Vantage, Washington, in 1954? (10 August)
• ... that the queen parrotfish feeds on the algae it scrapes from corals and other surfaces, resulting in bioerosion? (11 August)
• ... that the weebill (pictured), measuring 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) long, is Australia's smallest bird? (12 August)
• ... that sheep infected with the parasitic nematode Teladorsagia circumcincta may suffer from protein deficiency? (12 August)
• ... that the Sahel bush sparrow, found in the Oti Valley Faunal Reserve, is one of 676 species of bird recorded in Togo? (13 August)
• ... that the Ethiopian white-footed mouse and the Ethiopian forest brush-furred rat are two of the most abundant rodents in the montane forests of Ethiopia? (13 August)
• ... that Dardanus deformis is one of at least 24 species of hermit crab that transfer sea anemones to a new shell? (14 August)
• ... that the ornate rainbowfish can survive in water as acidic as orange juice? (14 August)
• ... that the African giant shrew was first described from a mummified specimen found in an ancient Egyptian tomb? (15 August)
• ... that the brown-cheeked hornbill is among the eleven species of hornbill native to Ivory Coast? (15 August)
• ... that among the many uses of Erythrophleum ivorense and Lannea welwitschii, trees growing in Assagny National Park, are rope-making, canoe-building and to poison fish? (16 August)
• ... that the densely-populated territory of Macau is home to a recently discovered, endemic species of freshwater crab of the genus Nanhaipotamon (pictured)? (17 August)
• ... that the crimson seedcracker has two morphs, large-billed and small-billed, but this trait is not related to sex, age, body size, or location? (18 August)
• ... that the large leaves of Marantochloa purpurea are used for wrapping cola nuts to prevent them from becoming desiccated? (18 August)
• ... that the sea anemone Anemonia sulcata is known as ortiguilla in southern Spain, where it is a popular seafood? (19 August)
• ... that the Sorana bean is grown in such small quantities and is in such demand that it commands prices six to ten times higher than those of other cannellini beans? (19 August)
• ... that antelope grass can recover quickly after wildfires even in the middle of the dry season? (19 August)
• ... that the Namib brush-tailed gerbil uses ultrasonic whistles and foot drumming to communicate? (20 August)
• ... that deforestation in Brazil could be linked to higher rates of the severe fungal infection caused by P. lutzii (pictured), a neglected tropical disease?
• ... that in Cameroon, edible caterpillars are cultivated on dwarf red ironwood leaves? (20 August)
• ... that the lesser seedcracker enjoys rice and the large, hard seeds of carrycillo? (21 August)
• ... that despite their names, the greater Egyptian gerbil and the lesser Egyptian gerbil are found across much of North Africa? (21 August)
• ... that it is not known whether larvae of Deretaphrus beetles spin their cocoons from their mouths or anal glands? (22 August)
• ... that the toxic bark of a Madagascan tree species has been used as a poison in trials by ordeal? (23 August)
• ... that the cannonball (pictured) and white-flowered black mangroves are among the ten species of mangrove listed as occurring in Mozambique? (24 August)
• ... that strips of bark from the West African copal are used to make beehives, while the flowers are attractive to bees? (24 August)
• ... that the swamp musk shrew scrambles around among aquatic vegetation in the dark? (25 August)
• ... that the rock parrot often nests in the old burrows of seabirds? (26 August)
• ... that the bush cricket Ruspolia nitidula (pictured) is commonly eaten in Uganda, where the price per unit weight is periodically higher than that of beef? (26 August)
• ... that despite its reported disappearance from Britain and other European countries, the fountain spleenwort is still considered to have a stable population trend? (27 August)
• ... that the African hut tampan can transmit relapsing fever in humans and African swine fever in pigs? (28 August)
• ... that in 1946, entomologists E. B. Pinniger and Cynthia Longfield were the first to identify the dainty damselfly in Britain? (28 August)
• ... that the Argus tortoise beetle is named after the mythical Greek giant Argus Panoptes? (28 August)
• ... that Pollichia campestris was first described in 1789 by the Scottish botanist William Aiton in the publication Hortus Kewensis, a catalogue of all the plants then being cultivated at Kew Gardens? (30 August)
• ... that the wildlife of Uganda includes the Ugandan kob (pictured), the Uganda mangabey, and the Ugandan musk shrew? (30 August)
• ... that the blue korhaan favours habitats with short grass, dwarf shrubs, and termite mounds, but few trees? (31 August)
• ... that forests in the Guineo-Congolian region of Africa include patches dominated by a single species of tree, such as Brachystegia laurentii, Julbernardia seretii, Michelsonia microphylla, or Gilbertiodendron dewevrei? (31 August)
• Highlighted DYKs were submitted by this month's spotlighted editor, Cwmhiraeth

Discuss this issue

You are receiving this because you added your name to the subscribers list of the WikiProject Tree of Life. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, please remove your name.

Sent by ZLEA via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 15:43, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Durio graveolens

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Durio graveolens you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Dunkleosteus77 -- Dunkleosteus77 (talk) 03:41, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

TheWikiWizard - September 2019

Hello, NessieVL! Here is the September 2019 issue of TheWikiWizard.

• A big thank you! (TWW is now 1 years old!)
• What's Hot! (Can you solve the riddles?)
• Articles (Assume Good Faith, The Teahouse)
• The Wikipedian
• News about Wikipedia! (Wikipedia News and Events!)
• Editor's Notes (New Sections to Main Page!)
• Activity Page (Fun Activities, and answers to last time's questions...)
• Ads (Ads)

We Hope you like this month's issue! If you'd like to discuss this issue, please go to this issue's talk page. Happy Reading! Thegooduser Life Begins With a Smile :) 🍁 21:44, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Handling incertae sedis ranks within Realm Riboviria

Maybe it's me, but I find the taxobox at, e.g., Alphatetraviridae, odd. What I would expect to see is:

(unranked):	Virus
Realm:	Riboviria
Phylum:	incertae sedis
Class:	incertae sedis
Order:	incertae sedis
Family:	Alphatetraviridae

similar to, say, Adenoviridae. It's a bit fiddly to set this up, but possible. What do you think? Peter coxhead (talk) 14:55, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

I thought the nested incertae sedis looked odd, personally :) The ICTV taxonomy page doesn't use incertae sedis, nor is the term used at all on the whole site. I can't think of a taxobox outside of one used for a virus that has incertae sedis listed twice in a row. But that's just my opinion. I don't want to butt heads. I'd be interested in why you think the box above is less odd, though. --Nessie (talk) 15:07, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

I think it's odd not to say what rank is incertae sedis – given that it means "of uncertain placement", what does "(unranked): incertae sedis" mean? Literally something like "of uncertain unknown rank", which is a bit nonsensical to me. I do take your point about multiple occurrences of incertae sedis. An alternative is just to omit the uncertain/unknown ranks altogether, which is what the ICTV spreadsheet does, and have:

(unranked):	Virus
Realm:	Riboviria
Family:	Alphatetraviridae

Or perhaps have one level of incertae sedis:

(unranked):	Virus
Realm:	Riboviria
Order:	incertae sedis
Family:	Alphatetraviridae

I'd prefer either to "(unranked): incertae sedis". What do you think? Peter coxhead (talk) 15:55, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: I see what you're saying now. I hadn't really been thinking of the rank. I used that because I wasn't sure how to condense all the ranks inbetween. I imagined a reader seeing a box like the lattermost and wondering: 'well, what class is it in then?' Though of the two that looks better to me. Also, the rank would need to be phylum to accommodate classes, orders, families, etc. unless we make one for each rank. --Nessie (talk) 16:05, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

It seems more logical (to me anyway) if there's only one uncertain rank given to give either the rank immediately above the known rank, or the topmost uncertain rank. Maybe the topmost is better if there's only one?? If it were a manual taxobox, it could have something like "Phylum–Order: incertae sedis" but I'm very reluctant to try to get {{Virusbox}} to accept rank ranges! So this approach would give:

(unranked):	Virus
Realm:	Riboviria
Phylum:	incertae sedis
Family:	Alphatetraviridae

Um... None of the solutions look very good. Peter coxhead (talk) 16:14, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

Clade? I agree, there is no satisfying solution that I can see. --Nessie (talk) 16:26, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

Displaying a single incertae sedis at the topmost uncertain rank has my vote. I usually omit displaying an incertae sedis, but then, in my activities, I'm usually encountering them for minor ranks (e.g., a grass genus with subtribal placement incertae sedis). If something is incertae sedis for major rank(s), that should probably be indicated in some manner. Plantdrew (talk) 17:02, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

@Plantdrew: well, that seems to be the least worst solution, so let's implement it. Peter coxhead (talk) 17:30, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

See Alphatetraviridae now. The listed genera in the taxobox need to be sorted. Peter coxhead (talk) 17:38, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

I assume you mean major rank, as the next highest rank under realm is subrealm, of which none exist. There is also kingdom and subkingdom which also have none defined. The highest defined rank in Riboviria is phylum, which is the only virus phylum. Does that sound ok for the incertae sedis rank? There are also a large number of virus taxa outside of Riboviria (which is the only realm), would you think realm would be the best rank for incertae sedis there? --Nessie (talk) 17:38, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

Yes, you're right, I should have written "highest major rank" or perhaps "highest Linnaean rank". A reasonably knowledgeable reader could expect there to be an order, class or phylum, but not realm. I'm personally happy just to leave realm out. Peter coxhead (talk) 17:44, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

Looks good enough for me. --Nessie (talk) 17:51, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Durio graveolens

The article Durio graveolens you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Durio graveolens for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Dunkleosteus77 -- Dunkleosteus77 (talk) 15:41, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Extraneous parameters in taxoboxes

In some of your conversion to automatic taxoboxes, you're adding a bunch of blank parameters that may not be appropriate. |trend= is not supported in taxoboxes, whether manual or automatic. I'm not sure where you're copying the parameters from but trend shouldn't be in any form of taxobox parameter documentation. Parameters for conservation status are very rarely appropriate in articles using {{Automatic taxobox}} (CITES is the only system that does status for ranks above species), so there isn't any point in adding blank parameters for status. It's fairly uncommon for species to have any subdivisions; routinely adding blank |subdivision= and |subdivision_ranks= to articles using {{Speciesbox}} seems pointless. Plantdrew (talk) 23:17, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure how I got |trend= in there. I haven't really lookmed critically at my copypasta for a bit, so I'll update it for the future. --Nessie (talk) 23:22, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Spooky Species reminder!

Hi, you've signed up to participate in the Spooky Species contest. The first official day of the contest is today, so you can start claiming points for improving the designated articles (also feel free to add articles to the table). The contest runs through Oct 31! Thanks for signing up! Enwebb (talk) 17:08, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Class rating

There is no need to add |class=Template to a WikiProject banner that is used on a Template talk: page, just as there is no need to add |class=category to a WikiProject banner that is used on a Category talk: page. With very few exceptions (and I can't think of any right now), a WikiProject banner that is used outside of the Talk: namespace of articles will automatically detect the class. This code is built into {{class mask}}, and has been there since MSGJ (talk · contribs) created it back in 2009. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 07:21, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

What harm does it do? How does this impact anything negatively?--Nessie (talk) 13:24, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Some redirects could become articles one day. If that happens, an explicit "class=redirect" will need to be updated. The redirect turned article should get class/importance ratings anyway, so that doesn't really change the amount of editing needed, but "class=redirect" will be WRONG until fixed. That is a (minor) negative impact. Redrose64 is talking about other namespaces though, and while I don't think specifying class in other namespaces is harmful, I don't think it's particularly helpful either, and I let the automatic detection do it's job when I'm put Wikiproject banners in other namespaces. But I'm not using Rater, and automatic detection saves me some typing. If Rater makes it easier to specify class outside of Article/Talk namespace than to leave class undefined, perhaps Rater's behavior needs to change. Plantdrew (talk) 16:34, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

The automatic detection is not the same with all WPs and all classes. I think a higher priority is removing |class=NA as that interferes with any automatic assessment, and there are plenty of those. --Nessie (talk) 17:28, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

I certainly agree with removing NA. Plantdrew (talk) 19:01, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Yes, removing NA is fine; in fact, it's beneficial since some WikiProject templates occasionally have the |QUALITY_SCALE= parameter altered in a manner that could move certain pages from NA-Class to Template-Class (or similar), and the presence of |class=NA would prevent automatic reclassification. But to return to the original point, might I take your question of 13:24, 24 September 2019 (UTC) and turn it around: what good does it do to add |class=Template? How does this impact anything positively? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:47, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

@Redrose64: It makes it explicit, and matches the format of other ratings like stub and so forth. Plus it clears up any foggy areas. I know that {{Wiktionary redirect}} does not usually get classified as a redirect. I'm not sure about {{Wikidata redirect}}. Would the system file pages using {{Category redirect}} as 'Category' or 'Redirect'? All these questions, that I'm sure many other editors, especially novices, won't know the answer to. Easier to make it explicit and clear. --Nessie (talk) 00:57, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

What about this one? The values redir and Redirect (also red), case-insensitive, are treated exactly the same by {{class mask}}, and always have been. This is apart from the fact that for the last four years (give or take a few days) redirects have also been autodetected when there is no |class= set. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:48, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Duplicate parms in Templates

Hi Nessie. There's a duplicate TF_3_MAIN_CAT in Template:WikiProject Australia. Davemck (talk) 17:17, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

@Davemck: Sorry about that. Should be fixed now. Cheers.

There's a duplicate NOTE_1_TEXT in Template:WikiProject Insects. Davemck (talk) 21:20, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

@Davemck:. Fooey. Fixed it. Thanks for the catch. --Nessie (talk) 01:23, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Brisbane articles by importance

A tag has been placed on Category:Brisbane articles by importance requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the category has been empty for seven days or more and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 02:37, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

brisbane

always seemed to be a task force with no assessment possible - in Perth westernorstrylia we have the situation where a smart alec reduced perth to a task force so when somehting is assessed as perth - the west oz stuff is the assessment part - very messy - trust the brisbane stuff sorts out... JarrahTree 04:23, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

what a very weird world we live in JarrahTree 04:27, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

@JarrahTree: yea, the talk page template wasn’t set up to use the assessments for Brisbane. I’m working on the ToL talk templates, which includes WP Australian Biota. Learning quite a bit. If there’s something else you see that needs doing on it, lmk. --Nessie (talk) 12:52, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

Looks like you've been very busy! I removed the CSD C1 tag from the Brisbane category as it is no longer empty. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:39, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Durio graveolens

Hello! Your submission of Durio graveolens at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Yoninah (talk) 23:33, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

September 2019 Tree of Life Newsletter

September 2019—Issue 006

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Kosmoceratops by FunkMonk Onychopterella by Super Dromaeosaurus Western yellow robin by Casliber Western yellow robin by Casliber, reviewed by Josh Milburn Apororhynchus by Mattximus, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Pekarangan by Dhio-270599, reviewed by Cerebellum Fritillaria by Michael Goodyear, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Embioptera by Chiswick Chap and Cwmhiraeth, reviewed by Vanamonde93 Durio graveolens by NessieVL, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Big brown bat by Enwebb and Gen. Quon, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 King brown snake by Casliber, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Staffordshire Bull Terrier by Atsme, reviewed by FunkMonk Ambush predator by Chiswick Chap, reviewed by Enwebb Belemnitida by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Chiswick Chap

Newly nominated content

Apororhynchus by Mattximus Meinhard Michael Moser by J Milburn St. Croix macaw by FunkMonk Paleocene by Dunkleosteus77 Orcinus meyeri by Dunkleosteus77 Snakefly by Chiswick Chap and Cwmhiraeth Tricolored bat by Enwebb Halloween darter by Enwebb

News at a Glance

• An end in sight for the WikiCup

The 2019 WikiCup is in its fifth and final round, with two of the eight remaining contestants from the ToL community. The 2016 winner Casliber is in first place as of 1 October, and Enwebbb is in seventh place.

• Getting spooky for Halloween

It's the most wonderful time of the year...Halloween, that is. With articles on skeleton frogs, ghost bats, and Satanic nightjars, Wikipedia has more spooky taxa than a graveyard has ghosts. In the new Spooky Species Contest, Tree of Life editors are turning Wikipedia into Spookypedia, working from a crowd-sourced list of taxa. There's still time to sign up! How can you let an article like Draculoides bramstokeri pass you by?

• The never-ending article title

September saw the creation of (takes deep inhalation) Cneoridium dumosum (Nuttall) Hooker F. Collected March 26, 1960, at an Elevation of about 1450 Meters on Cerro Quemazón, 15 Miles South of Bahía de Los Angeles, Baja California, México, Apparently for a Southeastward Range Extension of Some 140 Miles. Just two characters shy of Wikipedia's limit on article title length, Cneoridium dumosum...140 Miles now has the longest article title of any on English Wikipedia. In contrast to its verbose title, the journal article that is the subject of the article is only five words long.

Welcoming WikiProject Diptera and Project Creation Trends

5

10

15

20

'02

'04

'06

'08

'10

'12

'14

'16

'18

•   Active
•   Others

Tree of Life subprojects and task forces by start year and whether currently considered active or not

This month saw a vanishingly rare occurrence for the Tree of Life: a new WikiProject joined the fold. WikiProject Diptera, however, is also unusual in being a classroom project. Whether or not this project will stay active once the semester ends remains to be seen. It does not bode well, however, that WP:WikiProject Vespidae—a creation from the same instructor at St. Louis University—faded to obscurity shortly after the fall semester concluded in 2014. WikiProject Vespidae is defunct and now redirects to the Hymenoptera task force of WikiProject Insects.

Since 2014, the Tree of Life has seen a string of years where one or zero projects or task forces were created. The only projects and task forces created since then are WikiProject Animal anatomy (2014), Hymenoptera task force (2016), Bats task force (2017), WikiProject Hypericaceae (2018), and now WikiProject Diptera (2019). The year 2006 saw the greatest creation of WikiProjects and task forces, with fourteen still active and the remaining six as "semiactive", "inactive", or "defunct".

September DYKs

Enischnomyia fossil in Dominican amber

Lebombo wattle in the sand forest

Betula leopoldae leaf fossil

Pholiota squarrosoides

Lady Burton's rope squirrel

A child picks chili peppers in an Indonesian home garden.

• ... that the Natal cycad and the dune false currant are among the 1,900 endemic plant species found in the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot? (1 September)
• ... that the Ethiopian epauletted fruit bat uses its hind feet to comb its fur and its tongue to wash its face, wing membranes, and genital region? (3 September)
• ... that the scaly ground roller mostly eats earthworms and centipedes, but has been known to also eat frogs, lizards, and shrews? (4 September)
• ... that Kihaule's mouse shrew is named after the medical-entomological technician who collected the type specimen from the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania? (5 September)
• ... that the bat fly Enischnomyia (pictured) was first described from a specimen fossilized with Vetufebrus malaria in its gut? (5 September)
• ... that Duthie's golden mole and the long-tailed forest shrew are among the wildlife of South Africa that are both endemic and "vulnerable"? (7 September)
• ... that the Lebombo wattle (pictured), the water ironplum, and the Zulu coshwood grow in the Southern African Sand Forest, where they are often swathed in pinhead orchids and other epiphytes? (8 September)
• ... that Zenker's fruit bat often forages in areas of forest where Haumania liebrechtsiana grows, a plant favoured by gorillas and chimpanzees? (8 September)
• ... that the hard seeds of the Guinea plum are dispersed by elephants, and crushed and eaten by Sanje mangabeys? (9 September)
• ... that the extinct birch Betula leopoldae (leaf fossil pictured) is named after conservationist Estella Leopold? (10 September)
• ... that the Namib day gecko can sprint at 2.5 m/s (8 ft/s) in bright light? (10 September)
• ... that there are believed to be fewer than 100 mature specimens of Dacrydium guillauminii, which is considered critically endangered? (11 September)
• ... that the parasite Enteromyxum scophthalmi causes a severe illness in farmed turbot for which no cure is known? (13 September)
• ... that the nymphs of the mayfly Ephemera simulans are able to burrow? (14 September)
• ... that the Asian garden dormouse can enter torpor, a state in which it may remain for several days? (14 September)
• ... that Alexander's bush squirrel is named after Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, a British Army officer, explorer, and ornithologist? (15 September)
• ... that the mushroom Pholiota squarrosoides (pictured) has decayed logs of the trees Acer saccharum and Tilia glabra in the Great Lakes region of the US? (15 September)
• ... that a dark form of the Angolan slender mongoose is found to the south of the Cunene River and a pale form to the north? (16 September)
• ... that clover grass used to grow in the Pacific Ocean, but has not been seen there since a severe storm in 1996? (16 September)
• ... that despite the Zulu serotine bat having a widespread distribution in Africa, it is not known where it roosts during the day? (17 September)
• ... that Lady Burton's rope squirrel (pictured) was named in honour of Isabel Burton, wife of British explorer Sir Richard Burton? (17 September)
• ... that there is a myth that the pieces of the broken tail of the slender glass lizard can grow into new lizards? (18 September)
• ... that Thomas's rope squirrel can communicate with other squirrels vocally or by stamping? (18 September)
• ... that the cut flesh of the bitter tooth mushroom smells of watermelon? (19 September)
• ... that although honeynut squash originated about forty years ago, it has only been in markets for four years? (19 September)
• ... that the phloem sap of Phyllanthus balgooyi contains up to 16.9 per cent nickel by weight, giving it a bright green color? (20 September)
• ... that although Schreber's yellow bat is believed to be an insectivore, the related white-bellied yellow bat has been observed to eat dead bats in captivity? (20 September)
• ... that nests of the black-tailed tree rat resemble those of the red-billed buffalo weaver? (21 September)
• ... that jackfruits and chili peppers (pictured) are among the many crops planted in Indonesian home gardens? (22 September)
• ... that the African tropical tree Pouteria adolfi-friedericii was named after a German explorer? (23 September)
• ... that the Celebes warty pig has been domesticated and introduced into other Indonesian islands? (23 September)
• ... that the metabolic rate of Rhoptropus bradfieldi is about a quarter of that of other desert lizards? (24 September)
• ... that the dune hairy-footed gerbil locates its burrows close to plants, where the roots stabilise the shifting sand? (28 September)

Discuss this issue

You are receiving this because you added your name to the subscribers list of the WikiProject Tree of Life. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, please remove your name.

Sent by ZLEA via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 22:26, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

How to write virus and species names

Hello,

As Data Secretary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), I want to thank you for your efforts updating virus records in Wikipedia. But I want to highlight an error that is common in the literature, and has now crept into many Wikipedia virus records. Virus names are distinct from species names. (See https://talk.ictvonline.org/information/w/faq/386/how-to-write-virus-and-species-names.) The ICTV does not ever get involved in the naming of viruses, nor does it change the name of viruses. The ICTV only deals with the creation and naming of virus taxa. Therefore, as an example, the name of the page, "Human orthopneumovirus" is incorrect since the page describes the properties of the virus, human respiratory syncytial virus, and is not strictly a page about the species, Human orthopneumovirus. This is true of many virus pages referring to viruses belonging to the families Pneumoviridae and Paramyxoviridae. The taxon (and its name) represents a human idea, a logical construct referring to a category used for the classification of viruses. The virus is the physical entity that exists, has various properties, and causes disease.

Our recommendation would be to follow the general outline used by most research papers publishing articles about viruses in scientific journals. The taxonomic designation of the virus under study is described near the beginning of the introduction section of the paper, and provides the formal taxonomic name under which the virus is classified. The rest of the paper describes the research studying the properties of the virus, and uses the name of the virus that is in common use.

Using these suggestions, the Wikipedia page (and other similar pages) would begin "Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV), a member of the species Human orthopneumovirus, is a syncytial virus that causes respiratory tract infections. It is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infections and hospital visits during infancy and childhood." Then the complete taxonomic classification could be described under the "Taxonomy" section of the article (though this seems a bit redundant given the virus classification table to the upper right of the page).

Thank-you for providing us (the ICTV) with the opportunity to clarify the usage of virus taxonomic names and how they should be distinguished from virus names.

Best regards,

Elliot

_______________________________________________________________________

Elliot J. Lefkowitz, Ph.D. | Professor, Department of Microbiology

Data Secretary | International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses

https://ictv.global/

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Email: elliotl@uab.edu

@Elliot Lefkowitz: Thanks you for your note. Most of the Wikipedia articles on virus taxa were written by people who are not familiar with the orthography for virus taxa, typically coming from more of a medicine or a cellular life background. I am slowly making my way through the thousands of articles that need updates. The Human orthopneumovirus article is not a straightforward example, as the species name from 1995 to 2015 was Human respiratory syncytial virus, and it is my understanding that former species names are still species names, and should be italicized. That is how they appear on your website. This also makes it hard to differentiate between the virus name and the former species name, as they would the the same other than italics. It can be hard to tell which an author meant when the orthography has not been consistently applied here.

Another factor is monotypy. The policy here is to only have a single article for monotypic taxa and their sole members. It appears that Human orthopneumovirus has only a single member virus, known as human orthopneumovirus or human respiratory syncytial virus. So the article applies to the species and the member virus, as they are just different aspects of the same thing.

I take your point that writing on the aspects of the member virus should be un-italicized and lower-case, i.e. human orthopneumoviruses and not Human orthopneumoviruses. Again, there is a lot of work to do here, and slowly it's coming around.

I appreciate you writing to me. Let me know if anything else comes up. --Nessie (talk) 16:19, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

@Nessie, thanks for your response. I edited the first sentence of the page to better distinguish between the virus taxon name and the virus name. Hopefully this will help provide a better indication of preferred usage. -Elliot --Elliot Lefkowitz (talk) 16:34, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Dendrochytridium

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Dendrochytridium. Legobot (talk) 04:26, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Refs at List of introduced species‎

Howdy, just noticed you did a refill run on (parts of?) that article [1]. Looking at the results, I don't believe that was a good idea. The list is unusual in that almost all the "references" are external links - maybe that is something that should be changed, although it'd be one hell of a job with nearly 900 instances... but filling these in with text creates entries that are really hard to read. Just check the first few screens now - would you consider that an improved reading experience? It merely seems to have become harder to parse to me. I'd be tempted to undo that. Thoughts? --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 16:35, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

@Elmidae: that does not look great. I was trying to go through this list. I think the problem is that the references were not actually references but external links. If the single brackets could be changed to ref tags, then a tool like citation bot could clean them up.--Nessie (talk) 17:45, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Actually, that might be just the thing - a lil' offline search-and-replace might work. I'll see what I can do. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 17:58, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

@Elmidae: Cool. lmk if you need a hand. --Nessie (talk) 18:04, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

OK, "just" needs to be ReFilled now, which I may have to do in batches in my sandbox - who would have thought the tool chokes when presented with 1k+ references :] I may already have overtaxed the backend with my first request, as it seems to have gone into hibernation now. Oops. Will keep whittling away at it. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 18:42, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Giving up for the time being. ReFill chokes on the entire article in one go; it can do it in batches, BUT that produces faulty concatenated refs - as in, each individual batch will have things named "auto1", "auto2" etc., which then are badly combined in the final sweep, which leads to three dozen spiders all pointing to one turtle ref... don't know how to get past that :| --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 21:39, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

TheWikiWizard - October 2019

Hello, NessieVL! Here is the September 2019 issue of TheWikiWizard.

• What's Hot! (Turkey Overload, Federal Election...)
• Articles (Cite reliable sources!)
• The Wikipedian
• News about Wikipedia! (Wikipedia News and Events!)
• Editor's Notes (New Main Page Planning)
• Activity Page (Fun Activities, and answers to last time's questions...)
• Ads (Cool Ads)

We hope you like this month's issue! If you'd like to discuss this issue, please go to this issue's talk page. Happy Reading! --Thegooduser Life Begins With a Smile :) 🍁 01:43, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 02:05, 23 October 2019 (UTC) on behalf of DannyS712 (talk)

Flood of thrips

If you wanna do some WikiProject tagging of new articles, there's been a flood of thrips at User:AlexNewArtBot/ArthropodsSearchResult. I'm overwhelmed. Plantdrew (talk) 21:30, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Yea, I’ve been working through them. They been multiplying though. O_o --Nessie (talk) 01:15, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

No worries, folks. I took care of it. Sorry for the instant workload. Cheers! NielsenGW (talk) 12:06, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

@NielsenGW: That was fast! Thanks for all the hard work. Nice to have someone working on thrips. --Nessie (talk) 13:38, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

you might have thoughts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Plantdrew#we%20all%20have%20our%20moments I am stumped by these small dark corners - where or what the appropriate project might release them of their red tag for talk page... JarrahTree 01:08, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

DYK for Durio graveolens

On 28 October 2019, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Durio graveolens, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that despite a name meaning "strong-smelling durian", Durio graveolens has been described as odorless? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Durio graveolens. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Durio graveolens), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

 — Amakuru (talk) 01:31, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

What is an orphan anyway?

Hi NessieVL. Per your edit here, it seems like the community's feelings on what constitutes an "orphan" have shifted over the years. Rich Farmbrough sums it up nicely in the intro to this discussion from 2017. At some point, Wikipedia:Orphan was changed to recommend removing the template if there just 1+ links to a page (rather than the more classical 3). I believe that now reflects common practice amongst the folks who regularly use that tag (both on the page patrolling side, and the backlog side). Folks' philosophical take on the purpose of the Orphan template may vary, but I feel that most ToL pages on little-studied species (and their parent taxa) are unlikely to be linked from any page besides their parent/child taxa any time soon. So with that in mind, I use the orphan tag to point me to pages where the parent taxa don't have pages and/or the taxoboxes haven't been updated to reflect current nomenclature. So when I see everything looks fine (in this particular case, 18 years after its original description, Babesia sp. 'North Carolina dog' remains unnamed and authors are still referring to it as "a large piroplasm found in North Carolina dogs"), I just remove the tag. Sorry this has become long-winded. But thought an explanation might be in order. Hope all is well! Happy editing! Ajpolino (talk) 02:49, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Longan witches broom-associated virus

Hello! Your submission of Longan witches broom-associated virus at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 10:14, 1 November 2019 (UTC)