User talk:SchreiberBike/Archive 6

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More redirects

I have identified these in Lycaenidae.Will you fix them please.

• Sipaea redirect to Nesiostrymon
• Sterosis redirect to Liphyra Westwood, 1864
• Sublysandra redirect to Polyommatus
• Tajuria berensis redirect to Tajuria berenis
• Terra redirect to Nesiostrymon Clench, 1964
• Tigrinota redirect to Arawacus

Always grateful for your help.Best regards Robert aka Notafly (talk) 16:15, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

@Notafly: Got 'm. Let me know if I misunderstood anything or there's anything else I can help with. Keep up the good work.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  02:58, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks.All are correct.I imagine more redirects are likely since the blues are oversplit Best regards Notafly (talk) 11:54, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

disambig templates

Hi! I think the taxonomy templates work like this, for disambiguation. I'll use Lithocharis as an example.

• If there's a template "template:taxonomy/Lithocharis" that is used for lepidoptera, then there would need to be another such as "template:taxonomy/Lithocharis (beetle)" if one was needed for the beetle. The template name is used only for template disambiguation. The template name (the part after the slash, "Lithocharis" or "Lithocharis (beetle)") is used in the Speciesbox or Automatic taxobox. It doesn't necessarily have to be the same as the article name (but it might be less confusing that way.)
• If there's an article "Lithocharis" and an article "Lithocharis (beetle)", you can use the template "template:taxonomy/Lithocharis" for either one by specifying either "Lithocharis" or "Lithocharis (beetle)|Lithocharis" in the template's link field. In this case, if you want to use it for the beetle, the name "Lithocharis (beetle)" should not appear in the Speciesbox or Automatic taxobox, only "Lithocharis". The name in the Speciesbox or Automatic taxobox is for the template, not the article.
• It's not unusual to need a disambiguation name for both the template and article, in which case you need two templates (such as "template:taxonomy/Lithocharis" and "template:taxonomy/Lithocharis (beetle)", and in the link fields "Lithocharis" in one and "Lithocharis (beetle)|Lithocharis" in the other

Since there's not currently a template used for the lepidoptera Lithocharis, there really only needs to be one template, not both "template:taxonomy/Lithocharis" and "template:taxonomy/Lithocharis (beetle)"

...and, of course, I could be wrong on any of this. It's easy to get mixed up! Bob Webster (talk) 00:50, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

@Bob: I am not comfortable at all with the automatic taxoboxes system. I saw that there was a link from the beetle species Lithocharis ochracea to its genus which went in error to the moth genus Euparyphasma. I was pleased enough with myself that I was able to change that to a red link instead of the error. I would be in your debt if you could clean up after me as you described above. I am not now able to figure it out for myself. Thank you,  SchreiberBike | ⌨  04:09, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

It's all straight now (I think). Everything you did was correct from a content viewpoint, it just left an extra unused template file. I will point out that, while my explanation seemed perfectly clear when I wrote it, it sure is convoluted now!

I'm happy to help with any template stuff I can. Feel free to let me know if you need anything or notice anything wrong. Bob Webster (talk) 04:53, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Thanks and keep up the good work.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  14:37, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Redirect request from Notafly

Would you redirect Keraunogramma to Semanga Distant 1884 please. Best regards Notafly (talk) 16:08, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

Got it. Thanx.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  18:00, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks Notafly (talk) 17:47, 12 September 2018 (UTC)

Autopatrolled granted

Hi SchreiberBike, I just wanted to let you know that I have added the "autopatrolled" permission to your account, as you have created numerous, valid articles. This feature will have no effect on your editing, and is simply intended to reduce the workload on new page patrollers. For more information on the autopatrolled right, see Wikipedia:Autopatrolled. Feel free to leave me a message if you have any questions. Happy editing! - TNT ^💖 18:10, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

@There'sNoTime: Thanks. It makes sense to me, but you should be aware that by the letter of the law I am not eligible. It has been proposed three times before. See the bottom of this page. Keep up the good work.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  04:54, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

October 2018

Hello, I'm Zackmann08. Thank you for your recent contributions to Pseudozarba mianoides. When you were adding content to the page, you added duplicate arguments to a template which can cause issues with how the template is rendered. In the future, please use the preview button before you save your edit; this helps you find these errors as they will display in red at the top of the page. Thanks! Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 06:54, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

Invitation to New AI-Labelling Campaign for Newcomer Sessions

Hello, I'm reaching out to you because I saw that you signed up as a labelling volunteer at Wikipedia:Labels/Edit quality. I'm starting a new project that builds on Edit quality, to predict Newcomer quality. That is, to predict the damagingness and goodfaithness of "sessions" (multiple related edits) of users within 1 day of their registration. With this AI trained, we could help automatically distinguish betewen productive and unproductive new users. If you wouldn't mind taking a look at this new labelling campaign and label a few sessions I would be very grateful. In addition if you have any feedback or discover any bugs in the process I would appreciate that too. You can find the project page at Wikipedia:Labels/Newcomer_session_quality or go directly to labels.wmflabs.org/ui/enwiki/ and look for the campaign titled "Newcomer Session quality (2018)". Thanks so much!

Maximilianklein (talk) 20:02, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, SchreiberBike. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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Public holidays in Kurdistan listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Public holidays in Kurdistan. Since you had some involvement with the Public holidays in Kurdistan redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. -- Tavix ^(talk) 15:08, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Heliconisa edit

Thanks very much for the edit on Heliconisa; I could not locate a similar article for a monotypic genus that also had an automatic taxobox, so was uncertain how it needed to be formatted. I'll make a note of this for future reference, I've seen a few other such cases and left them alone. Dyanega (talk) 01:09, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

I'm slowly working out how and when to use {{Speciesbox}} and {{Automatic_taxobox}}; they are not self explanatory for me. Thanks for adding in the parentheses. I should have seen that. Keep up the good work.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  01:17, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Five years!

Happy 2019 --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:46, 19 January 2019 (UTC)

@Gerda Arendt: Wow! Thank you for the reminder. Five years is a long time on the Internet.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:27, 19 January 2019 (UTC)

six years now! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:36, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

@Gerda Arendt: Thank you. Good to think of such things again. SchreiberBike | ⌨  04:04, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

yes, good for me ;) - last year was my successful year of thanks, DYK? (see my talk). --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:08, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for the nice words!

Thank you for the nice words! When writing a new article (or translating one) should I put references before or after punctuation marks on the english wikipedia? Have a nice day! Okimeolvx (talk) 08:30, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

@Okimeolvx: Hi there! Wikipedia has a lot of rules, but mostly you don't need to worry about them. Just use your good judgement and do what seems right. You will get it right most of the time. If you do start reading the rules though you'll be able to make the articles match with Wikipedia's style and they will be easier to read. The specific rules about references and punctuation are at MOS:REFPUNCT. As you are able, read that whole WP:MOS page. It's a lot to absorb though, so don't feel like you need to know it all before you start. Let me know if there's any other questions you have or there's anything else I can do to help. Keep up the good work.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:02, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

copyedit request

Hi SchreiberBike, I created a draft of the first issue of the Tree of Life newsletter. If you're still interested in glancing it over for a c/e, it would be appreciated. Thanks, Enwebb (talk) 16:39, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

@Enwebb: I generally followed WP:MoS style, but since you are starting the newsletter, you can set the style any way you want. Feel totally free to disagree with my choices and I'll try to follow your style in the future.

I wanted to explain some of my choices: I capitalized article titles when used as article titles rather than as the name of a species – that's not always done, so your call. You've got ;<big> ... </big> for the headings. Would you be comfortable using == ... == format instead? WP:ACCESSIBILITY favors that. For the dire whelk DYK, what is "being eaten" is unclear in the text, but that's how it was on the DYK. If you want to change that back, that makes sense; your call. I think the April DYKs section looks better showing rather than being behind the "show" button, but again, your call. I'm not good with tables, but if the tops of the "Newly recognized content" and "Newly nominated FAs" tables were vertically even, that would look better.

I like to copy edit and I mostly do ok, but because I am dyslexic there are some kinds of errors (like spelling) that are invisible to me. Keep that in mind. Also, my health is uneven and I'm not always able to be involved the way I'd like to be, so be prepared for me to disappear if necessary. Thank you and keep up the good work.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:33, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

SchreiberBike, Thanks for your time! I appreciate it and will consider all of your suggestions. As far as the vertical alignment of the tables, it must just be a display thing, because they look even to me on my mac and PC. Thanks again, and don't worry, I'm not expecting a standing commitment :) Enwebb (talk) 23:36, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

Editor of the Week

Mihran Hakobyan's Wikipedia Monument, located in Słubice, Poland

SchreiberBike

Editor of the Week for the week beginning June 2, 2019

Does "the small things on Wikipedia to make them a little bit better". like checking the capitalization of species common names and fixing them to match WP's editing. Displays vigilance and determination doing copy editing and other things.

Recognized for

Doing the little things to make WP better

Submit a nomination

		Editor of the Week
		Your ongoing efforts to improve the encyclopedia have not gone unnoticed: You have been selected as Editor of the Week in recognition of your great contributions! (courtesy of the Wikipedia Editor Retention Project)

User:Buster7 submitted the following nomination for Editor of the Week:

Sometimes as I work on one gem I find another. While awarding User:AddWittyNameHere, I discovered SchreiberBike, a cohort of hers that deserves acknowledgement and credit for doing, in his words, "the small things on Wikipedia to make them a little bit better. Lately most of my effort has been spent checking the capitalization of species common names and fixing them to match Wikipedia's style. I'm working primarily on Lepidoptera now. While I do that, I do other stuff too or else I get bored. I've also adopted some delicious typos and sometimes do copy editing and other things". When the Editor of the Week award was first inaugurated, SchreiberBike was exactly the type of editor we had in mind. Imagine the mess Wikipedia would be without the vigilance and diligence this type of editor displays. Bravo and well-deserved! User:Adityavagarwal strongly supported this nomination.

You can copy the following text to your user page to display a user box proclaiming your selection as Editor of the Week:

{{User:UBX/EoTWBox}}

Thanks again for your efforts! ―Buster7 ☎ 00:44, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

@Buster7:. Wow! Thank you. It's a little shocking. I don't edit Wikipedia to earn recognition, but still, it feels good to receive it. Keep up the good work and let me know if I can do anything to help. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:43, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Congrats! and thanks for helping at John Henry Salter --Dick Bos (talk) 18:42, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Gustav Adolf Closs aka Adolf Gustav Closs

I am sure you are right about Closs. They are most likely one and the same.I will change the page Best regards Notafly (talk) 20:55, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

@Notafly: Thanks. It seemed likely. I've set up redirects both here and at Wikispecies. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:35, 24 July 2019 (UTC)

I have unreviewed a page you curated

Hi, I'm QueerEcofeminist. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, List of moths of the Iberian Peninsula, and have marked it as unpatrolled. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.

Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.

QueerEcofeminist ^{"cite! even if you fight"!!!} [they/them/their] 15:02, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

New message from BigDwiki

Hello, SchreiberBike. You have new messages at BigDwiki's talk page.
Message added 05:14, 16 August 2019 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

BigDwiki (talk) 05:14, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Moved from User:SchreiberBike/Lepidoptera caps

COMMENT: there is a problem with this elimination of initial capitals from vernacular names. You can't tell if "small brown warbler" is a warbler that happens to be small and brown, a Brown Warbler that happens to be small, or a species called the Small Brown Warbler.

I'm not convinced of the wisdom of this as a general policy. Foiled circuitous wanderer (talk) 14:22, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Hi @Foiled circuitous wanderer: That's a legitimate opinion and one that's been discussed at length (See: WP:BIRDCON). However, for the last about five years, Wikipedia has been consistent in capitalizing as described at MOS:LIFE. Good writing is necessary throughout Wikipedia and where the descriptive parts of a name can be confusing, it's worth writing carefully to be clear what is descriptive and what is the name. Let me know if you have any other questions or ideas. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:29, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) It should be clear from context whether a warbler that is small and brown is being referred to, or one particular species. If it isn't clear, rephrase until it is. However, while I am in generally in favor of using sentence case for vernacular names, I don't think it works very well for lepidopterans that have a definitive article in the vernacular name. Giving the vernacular name of Agrochola circellaris as "the brick" is more confusing than "The Brick", and there's really no way to rephrase the context to clarify (other than explicitly saying that "the brick" is a vernacular name for the species; e.g., "the brick, as it is commonly known, is found in Europe..."). Plantdrew (talk) 15:12, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

Help

Hello. Help expand for article Akane Yamaguchi from 山口茜. Thanks you. Ghyuw5 (talk) 03:06, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

@Ghyuw5: What kind of help do you need? I know nothing about badminton and don't speak Chinese. Posting the same message on nine user pages is odd. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:14, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

expand.Ghyuw5 (talk) 03:15, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

You might be able to get some help at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Badminton or Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:18, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Neutral notice

This is a neutral notice to all registered editors who have contributed to Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Film over the past year (Sept. 15, 2018-present) that a Request for Comment has been posted here. --Tenebrae (talk) 15:03, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Hipparchia hermione not alcyone

Hello again Schreiber Bike Rock grayling redirects to Hipparchia alcyone. The valid name in most sources including Fauna Europaea and Wikispecies is Hipparchia hermione and I think we should use this. Will you rename the page (I have changed the text and will add more) and fix the redirect. I see other language pages vary in this respect but not much can be done here (Or can it?) Very best regards Notafly (talk) 20:23, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

@Notafly: Done. Glad to help. Not sure about other language editions of Wikipedia though. SchreiberBike | ⌨  20:37, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

In the blink of an eye.Very many thanks Notafly (talk) 20:52, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

ANI report that may be of interest to you

Regarding misuse of automated tools: Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Bot_like_edits_from_User:BigDwiki. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 23:05, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

Canelo Álvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin - apologies

I think I accidentally edited an older version of the article which also undid your edit. Sorry about that. S0091 (talk) 04:26, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

No problem. Thanks for the note. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  04:27, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Happy First Edit Day!

Well, thank you. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  18:45, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

Invitation to join the Ten Year Society

Dear SchreiberBike/Archive 6,

I'd like to extend a cordial invitation to you to join the Ten Year Society, an informal group for editors who've been participating in the Wikipedia project for ten years or more. ​

Best regards, Chris Troutman (talk) 21:11, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

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Google Code-In 2019 is coming - please mentor some documentation tasks!

Hello,

Google Code-In, Google-organized contest in which the Wikimedia Foundation participates, starts in a few weeks. This contest is about taking high school students into the world of opensource. I'm sending you this message because you recently edited a documentation page at the English Wikipedia.

I would like to ask you to take part in Google Code-In as a mentor. That would mean to prepare at least one task (it can be documentation related, or something else - the other categories are Code, Design, Quality Assurance and Outreach) for the participants, and help the student to complete it. Please sign up at the contest page and send us your Google account address to google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org, so we can invite you in!

From my own experience, Google Code-In can be fun, you can make several new friends, attract new people to your wiki and make them part of your community.

If you have any questions, please let us know at google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org.

Thank you!

--User:Martin Urbanec (talk) 21:58, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

November 2019 Tree of Life Newsletter

November 2019—Issue 008

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

King brown snake by Casliber List of canids by PresN Tricolored bat by Enwebb, reviewed by Cwmhiraeth Alopias palatasi by Macrophyseter, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Deep biosphere by RockMagnetist (DCO visiting scholar), reviewed by Jens Lallensack

Newly nominated content

Eastern green mamba by Casliber A History of the Birds of Europe by Jimfbleak Anastrepha ludens by OstapKukhar Castorocauda by Dunkleosteus77 Aedes taeniorhynchus by XuLily Drosophila silvestris by Mmhua Dryopithecus by Dunkleosteus77 Christmas Island flying fox by Dunkleosteus77 Christmas imperial pigeon by Dunkleosteus77 Drosophila subobscura by Andrewoh29 Ceratitis capitata by Nikhilaggarwal123 Woolly rhinoceros by Thylacinus cynocephalus Ooedigera by Dunkleosteus77

News at a Glance

• The Wiki Science Competition has begun on Wikimedia Commons. Several flora and fauna images have already been uploaded (the image at left is my current favorite).

• 
  Several copepod species
• 
  Red deer
• 
  Teucrium polium
• 
  Ants cross chasm via body bridge
• 
  Sarus crane duet

• NessieVL created a Decemberween contest to improve taxa related to winter holidays. Loopy30 is out to an early lead, but with the bonus system for page views, there's still time for GA writers to hit a couple of home runs on some of the bigger articles like reindeer and mistletoe.
• Though it didn't make it onto the main page in time for Halloween, Satanic nightjar made a splash nevertheless, cracking the list of non-lead DYK hooks with at least 15,000 views. The article was viewed nearly 17,000 times while on the main page (a typical day for the article is 10-15 views).

Class is in Session in the Tree of Life

In an interesting turn of events, this month's guest column is by my alter-ego, Elysia (Wiki Ed):

*Puts on Wiki Education hat* Hi everyone, I'm Elysia and I work for Wiki Education. You may know me as Enwebb. I got a request last month to let you know how Wiki Education is intersecting with the Tree of Life subprojects. As one of Wiki Education's major goals is to improve topics related to the sciences, leading to our Communicating Science initiative, we end up supporting quite a few in the biological sciences. Here are the TOL-related courses active this term:

• Advanced Ecology and Evolution
• Animal Behaviour
• Aquatic and Marsh Plants

• Bacterial Physiology
• Behavioral Ecology
• Development and Evolution
• The Evolution and Ecology of Sex
• Graduate Seminar in Conservation Biology
• Mammalogy
• Mammalogy
• Microbial Symbiosis and Microbiomes
• Microbiology
• Microbiology
• Plant Diversity
• Research and technical writing in Biology
• Wetland Ecology

What is the impact of student editors in Tree of Life?

A Wiki Education resource for students editing species articles

Altogether, these 16 courses have 347 student participants. As the end of the semester hasn't come yet, these numbers are still growing, but these students have:

• created 50 new articles
• edited 516 articles in total
• made over 11.3k total edits
• added over 470,000 words
• added 5.9k references

Some of our best student work this semester (of any kind, not just biodiversity) has come from Agelaia's Behavioural Ecology course—you may remember this as the course that created WikiProject Diptera. The students have several Good Article nominations, including Dryomyza anilis, Anastrepha ludens, Aedes taeniorhynchus, Drosophila silvestris, Drosophila subobscura, and Ceratitis capitata.

And while long-term participation from students is low, there's always the chance that we'll discover a Wikipedian. I had never edited before my Wikipedia assignment in 2017 and I'm still here nearly 20,000 edits later! After I poked around in the beginning of the semester, I had the realization that not many people write Wikipedia, and very few of those have a special interest in bats. If I didn't stick around to write the content, there was no guarantee that it would ever get done.

Why are species articles suitable for students?

Writing about taxonomic groups is a great fit for students, as it keeps them away from areas where new editors traditionally struggle. The notability policy is generous towards taxa, and there is little danger of a student's work getting removed for lack of notability; this is to be expected when students write biographies. Students may struggle with encyclopedic tone for biographies and stray towards promotional writing, but this is much less common when writing about a shrew or algae!

Additionally, we're never going to run out of species to write about. Students have a bounty of stubs and redlinks to pick from. Creating a new article or expanding an existing one also takes a fairly predictable structure, with plenty of articles that students can model after.

Don't students just create messes for volunteers to clean up?

Our sincere hope is that, no, they don't, and we take several steps to try to minimize the burden on volunteer labor. With automatic plagiarism detection, alerts when students edit a Good or Featured Article, and notifications when students edit an article subject to discretionary sanctions, we try to stay ahead of problems as much as possible. We also review all student work at the end of each term. Ian, Shalor, and I are always happy to receive pings alerting us to student issues that need to be addressed.

November DYKs

Brants's whistling rat

Female black-capped tanager

• ... that Brants's whistling rat (illustration shown) seldom ventures more than 30 cm (12 in) from one of the many entrances to its burrow? (4 November)
• ... that the assassin bug Rhynocoris longifrons will feed on moth larvae in preference to sap-sucking pests? (5 November)
• ... that poison devil's-pepper has been used both as rat poison and as a traditional medicine for humans? (6 November)
• ... that the lamenting grasshopper seems to be expanding its range northwards in Italy, possibly as a result of climate change? (10 November)
• ... that each Xyloterinus politus larva has its own individual cradle? (12 November)
• ... that the assassin bug Rhynocoris marginatus injects venomous saliva into its prey to paralyse it? (13 November)
• ... that botanist George R. Proctor collected more than 55,000 specimens, had 31 species named after him, and was convicted of a conspiracy to murder his wife? (14 November)
• ... that the bark of Guibourtia tessmannii is much esteemed in traditional medicine and is often removed from living trees? (15 November)
• ... that the female black-capped tanager (pictured) moulds her nest by vibrating in it? (18 November)
• ... that the Satanic nightjar can make a growling noise when disturbed? (21 November)
• ... that infestations of Leptoconops torrens biting flies have halted construction and farming projects in California? (22 November)
• ... that the male of the hoverfly species Syritta pipiens darts sharply in flight to facilitate mating? (23 November)
• ... that the tree Drypetes gerrardii was named after William Gerrard, who collected plants in southern Africa in the 1860s? (25 November)
• ... that in Nova Scotia, the tricolored bat roosts exclusively in the dangling fronds of bony beard lichen? (26 November)
• ... that the southern black korhaan, native to South Africa, is becoming rarer due to loss of its natural habitat to agriculture? (27 November)
• ... that the green spruce aphid often continues breeding throughout the winter, but the nymphs become dormant in the summer? (28 November)
• ... that the ambrosia beetle Euplatypus parallelus cultivates fungi in the galleries it creates for its larvae (29 November)
• ... that the parasitic wasp Lathrolestes luteolator has adopted the amber-marked birch leaf miner as a new host? (30 November)

Discuss this issue

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Question concerning placement of images

I’m curious. You edited the image I just placed on List of mammals of Brazil. You changed [[ to “ I will need to scout up the guides to find out what I did wrong. However, why did you not make the same change on all the other images? Thanks Johnson-Bob (talk) 22:24, 27 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for the question. You had changed the caption from "Tayra" to "Eira barbara" and Wikipedia style is to italicize scientific names. If you go to the page Tayra, you'll see that Eira barbara is in italics there. It's the same for all species. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  00:30, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

(talk page stalker)Not just Wikipedia style, either—though that is obviously the most relevant thing here—it's an actual binomial nomenclature thing supported by both ICZN & ICN. AddWittyNameHere 00:36, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

Theodor Gottlieb von Scheven

Greetings SchreiberBike Will you take a look at Theodor Gottlieb von Scheven. The added templates -living person (he died in 1810) and notability (he described the well known moth Zygaena lonicera) are (unwittingly) unjust to this early naturalist.I hope they will be removed or worse the page deleted.No doubt more will be added to this page but not by me my German isn't up to it. Best regards Notafly (talk) 20:14, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

It looks like AddWittyNameHere has done excellent work there. Thanks to Witty. SchreiberBike | ⌨  06:00, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

December 2019 Tree of Life Newsletter

December 2019—Issue 009

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Apororhynchus by Mattximus Eastern green mamba by Casliber Christmas Island flying fox by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Enwebb Devils Hole pupfish by Enwebb, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Castorocauda by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by SUM1 Ocelot by Sainsf, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Snakefly by Chiswick Chap and Cwmhiraeth, reviewed by Sainsf

Newly nominated content

Cactus wren by CaptainEek Drosophila mettleri by Jillian Shah Boring Billion by Dunkleosteus77 Calliphora vomitoria by Y.shiuan Pubal by Samotny Wędrowiec Poinsettia by Enwebb Steller's sea ape by Dunkleosteus77 Christmas darter by Enwebb and Cwmhiraeth Egyptian fruit bat by Enwebb and Asanc445 Paranthropus by Dunkleosteus77 Segnosaurus by FunkMonk Argentinosaurus Slate Weasel

News at a Glance

• On December 10th, the IUCN updated 8,225 species assessments, including 6,722 that were added to the list for the first time. All eucalypt species have officially been evaluated by the IUCN with this update. Several birds were newly declared extinct (poʻouli, cryptic treehunter, Alagoas foliage-gleaner) and one declared extinct in the wild (Spix's macaw). The official press release is here.
• Sign-ups are open for the 2020 WikiCup, a months-long competition where editors score points by improving articles. Sign-ups are open through 31 January.
• The Winter Holidays Contest is wrapping up. Christmas Island flying fox was promoted to GA, and there are several pending GANs (Christmas darter, poinsettia, and Christmas imperial pigeon). Images were added to 36 articles that were previously lacking them, and 125 articles were converted from taxoboxes to speciesboxes.
• The Tree of Life was featured in The Signpost as a WikiProject report, eight years after it was last featured. This marked the return of the WikiProject report after a year hiatus.

Editor Spotlight: Plantdrew

We're joined this month by long-time editor Plantdrew, who's currently engaged in streamlining the taxonomic structure of Wikipedia articles via the automated taxobox system.

How did you become a Wikipedian? What are your particular interests (besides the obvious of "plants")?

My first job out of school in was working for ITIS; entering new species, mostly fish. At that time, ITIS was the single largest taxonomic database, and I was enthusiastic about the prospects for the eventual completion of a comprehensive global taxonomic resource. I moved on to other things, and fews years later I became aware of Wikipedia and eventually Wikispecies. At that time (~2007), It seemed to me that Wikispecies might be the best prospect for a comprehensive global taxonomic resource. ITIS had a team of 5 data developers when I worked there, while Wikispecies had a substantially larger editor base and was growing faster than ITIS (although still smaller than ITIS). I did a little bit of editing at Wikispecies at that point, but stopped after being frustrated that a project that easily could have been a structured database had little consensus for any particular standards or structures.

As Wikipedia grew, I found myself using it more and more as a reference. Eventually I started making occasional editing as an IP to fix errors I noticed. I finally registered an account when I needed to create an article; there was an article purportedly about an insect genus, but all the information pertained to a particular species, so I created an article for the species and moved information there. I started finding more cases where Wikipedia was conflating different topics; plant product derived from multiple species with a taxobox for one species, the common name for a fairly well known fruit needing disambiguation against an obscure French town. At that point I was hooked and started making more substantial contributions. It also was apparent that while the English Wikipedia might not outpace Wikispecies in article count, it had better representation of organisms that more people were interested in, and was attracting far more readers. For the first few years I was active, I focused on adding redirects for (unambigous)) vernacular names, and resolving ambiguous vernacular names.

Aside from plants, I'm interested in slime molds, fungi, and various sessile and slow-moving animals (I like things that can be observed without them running away). I've had some short term work experience with fishes (ITIS), mammals, birds and insects.

What projects are keeping you busy around the 'pedia at present?

Well, I'm not much of a content creator. I mostly do gnomish edits.

Every day, I try to look through the all the new articles for the ToL subprojects that have new article reports set up (which reminds me, we should really get a ToL-wide new article report going). Many new articles are created by experienced ToL editors whose names I recognize, and I don't do much to check their work. For unfamiliar editors, I tag articles for the appropriate WikiProject, and check for formatting, grammar, etc. A couple years ago, I was just about the only person checking new ToL articles, but recently other ToL editors have stepped up.

Since early 2017, my main project has been converting manual taxoboxes to automatic taxoboxes. That has me going through articles systematically, and since I'm editing them anyway there are a bunch of other changes I make as necessary. Checking that classification is up-to-date, standardizing formatting, adding inline citations, refining categories, adding images if any are available on Commons, adding additional IDs to taxonbars in cases of monotypy, creating/categorizing redirects. I've slowly been working through plant articles, with occasional forays into other groups of organisms. Some of these tasks weren't part of my work flow when I first started, and there are some tasks that I could be doing, but haven't bothered with (short descriptions, certain types of categories). I expect it'll take about another year for me to finish up with plant automatic taxoboxes, and then I'm sure I'll have to find something else to do.

What's your favorite plant?

I couldn't pick just one. Pseudotsuga is the dominant tree where I grew up, and it always makes me happy to be back in a Douglas fir forest. Asimina triloba is my favorite wild edible plant that grows where I live now. I studied Berberis thunbergii as an invasive species in grad school, and have a love/hate relationship with it now (mostly hate, but it remains interesting). Belgian endive is my favorite vegetable without a Wikipedia article. I'm fond of Lamiaceae in general, and while many species are used as herbs, I'm particularly interested in mints with other uses; Salvia hispanica as a pseudo-cereal, Plectranthus rotundifolius as a root crop, and Salvia divinorum as psychoactive plant with mysterious origins (is it a cultigen?).

What's your background like? How did you come to have a special interest in biology?

I grew up in a rural area and spent a lot of time playing in the woods and working in the garden, so I interacted a lot with plants as a child. My mother's parents were (insect) taxonomists (and a great-grandparent had a keen interest in natural history). My mother was pretty comfortable with scientific names, and after my parents settled in a part of the country with many plants they hadn't been familiar with, she learned the new plants by scientific names. I knew a bunch of plants by scientific names from an early age long before I realized that other people had different names for them. When I was a little older I became interested in edible wild plants. I remained interested in plants in general, and when I was in college and discovered the discipline of ethnobotany, which really tied together the general botany side of my interests with the edible plant side.

What's something that would surprised TOL editors about your life off-wiki?

Birders have life lists of species they've seen. I have a life list of plant species I've eaten. I enjoy shopping at international grocery stores, looking for new plants to try (or different preparations of unusual plants I've already tried). I've made two trips to a city 5 hours away just to shop at a store that I'm pretty sure is the largest international grocery store in the United States. My best Christmas gift this year was a box with little sample packs of 14 different species of dried fruits and herbs from Australia. I'd prefer to try the fruits fresh, but without making a trip to Australia, this is my best opportunity to try some of the major bushfoods.

Anything else you'd like us to know?

Editing Wikipedia has been a rewarding hobby for me, and although I haven't done a lot of direct collaboration with other editors, the ToL community seems pretty friendly and relatively conflict free. ToL is a good bunch of people.

December DYKs

Member of genus Chrysomya

Mekong Bobtail

• ... that the tapping sound of the deathwatch beetle has long been considered an omen of an impending death? (1 December)
• ... that Chinese virologist George F. Gao led a test laboratory in Sierra Leone during the peak of the 2014 Ebola outbreak? (1 December)
• ... that the chirps of the snowy tree cricket can be used to estimate the temperature? (2 December)
• ... that research on pain in fish by Victoria Braithwaite resulted in new rules in the UK, Europe, and Canada to make fisheries more humane? (2 December)
• ... that plant physiologist Hu Dujing cultivated Eucommia ulmoides to produce a substitute for rubber? (3 December)
• ... that Rhagoletis juglandis is a species of fly that infests walnuts? (3 December)
• ... that the granulate ambrosia beetle is native to Asia but has spread as an invasive species to Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania? (5 December)
• ... that the Peleng tarsier, a small carnivorous primate, can rotate its head nearly 180 degrees in either direction? (7 December)
• ... that Chrysomya putoria (genus member pictured) and other flies that feed on decomposing flesh are used as important tools in forensic entomology to establish the post-mortem interval? (9 December)
• ... that a moth is being used in biological pest control of the sugarcane planthopper? (12 December)
• ... that because photomicrographs of Longan witches broom-associated virus were not published, the virus was not initially accepted as the cause of the eponymous disease? (13 December)
• ... that infestations of the cotton jassid can be reduced by growing a cotton cultivar with hairy leaves? (14 December)
• ... that Coelopa pilipes fly populations can live at temperatures of 40 °C (104 °F) within piles of kelp, even in areas covered with snow and ice? (18 December)
• ... that Hirtodrosophila mycetophaga mate on bracket fungi, selectively choosing those with a lighter surface to enhance the visibility of their courtship displays? (19 December)
• ... that Appasus japonicus (pictured), a species of giant water bug, provides an example of insect paternal care? (20 December)
• ... that the banana weevil is considered the most serious insect pest of bananas? (21 December)
• ... that the Christmas Island flying fox matures more slowly than nearly all other bats? (26 December)
• ... that in the absence of males in North America, the female woolly alder sawfly reproduces through parthenogenesis? (26 December)
• ... that the Christmas darter is considered a priority species by the state of South Carolina, but of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature? (28 December)
• ... that after laying its eggs on a leaf, the female mango leaf-cutting weevil severs the leaf near its base and lets it fall to the ground? (30 December)
• ... that Mekong Bobtails (example pictured) were among 200 royal cats given to Nicholas II of Russia by King Chulalongkorn of Siam in the 19th century? (31 December)

Discuss this issue

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Neutral notice

As an editor who commented at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Film between Jan. 1, 2019, and today, you may wish to join a discussion at that page, here.--Tenebrae (talk) 23:54, 9 January 2020 (UTC)

George Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Abercorn

Dear SchreiberBike. Thanks for correcting mistakes on the article George Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Abercorn, to which I contributed and which is therefore on my watchlist. I agree with all the other corrections you made but have doubts about replacing the BR HTML tag with BR/. I thought Wikipedia uses HTML5, which does not require closure for the BR. I have heard that some people maintain that BR does confuse the Source Editor's syntax highlighting, but I have always used just unclosed BR and did not notice anything going wrong with the syntax highlighting, which I have always on. Can you please explain why BR/ is necessary? I have used BR a lot. I want to be sure and understand why, before I change all that. With many thanks Johannes Schade (talk) 12:23, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi @Johannes Schade: Thanks for your note. I typically make that edit because I use this syntax highlighter which is available under Preferences/Gadgets/Editing. I don't know how many other people use it, but I find it quite helpful and I suspect more people would use it if they knew about it. One particularity of the highlighter is that it differentiates between a <br> and a <br/>. As it says in the documentation "For performance reasons, the highlighter requires all tags to be valid XML. For example, make sure that if you start a <p> tag you end it with </p>, and use <br/> instead of <br>." Hence, I do it because it helps some people and doesn't hurt anything. Thank you. SchreiberBike | ⌨  21:09, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Dear SchreiberBike. Thank you for the precise description, which allowed me to understand that the syntax highlighter that you use is not the normal one that comes with the Source Editor of the English Wikipedia but an alternative one that is offered as a Gadget. I habitually use the normal one, which comes with the editor but is by default switched off and needs to be switched on by clicking the fourth button on the top of the editor that shows a pen and displays the tooltip text "Syntax highlighting" when the mouse hovers over it. The editor remembers this switching on as your choice and will thereafter always highlight the text in the editor window. This normal syntax highlighter does not require closing the BR tag. Following your description I have tried the alternative highlighter, which was new to me. The two highlighters can be easily be distinguished from each other by the way they highlight: the normal one colours the letters of the text, not their background, whereas the alternative highlighter colours the background of the letters as a highlighter pen would do on a printed text. The choice of the highlighter tool is of course personal, I feel that both do their job well enough. However, the alternative one requires BR closure and is therefore not strictly HTML5-compatible. Please try the normal highlighter. I would be very interested to hear what you think. Best regards Johannes Schade (talk) 09:13, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

@Johannes Schade: In my mind, the normal highlighter is the new highlighter; I'd used the old one for quite a while before the new one came around. I experimented with the new one when it came out and I've experimented with it more today. It has been improved since then, but for me, it still has some deal killers. When I use it with Firefox, it doesn't support spell checking (a necessity for me as a dyslexic). When I use it with Chrome, the ctrl+f function is erratic and Chrome doesn't have a "match case" function. Also, it doesn't as clearly mark unclosed tags or formatting. I'm willing to try new things, but the new highlighter hasn't worked for me. If it's not causing problems, I'll keep changing to <br/>. SchreiberBike | ⌨  06:39, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Dear SchreiberBike. Thank you for your interesting reply. I suspected so much: the normal highlighter is a new highlighter, whereas "Remember the dot"'s highlighter is older. I did not know this as I myself am a novice on Wikipedia and have therefore not seen the time when the new highlighter was new. It seems the new syntax highlighter comes from an JavaScript editor called CodeMirror. I have difficulties to understand some of your comments. I use Chrome and the new highlighter but do not seem to experience erratic behaviour of ctrl+f, which seems well to always pop up the Find Bar as it should. I agree that Chrome's Find Bar could do with a case-sensitivity toggle. I would use that from time to time. — Okey, I have understood why you and some others change <br> to <br/>, which first seemed to me a very weird correction. If I understand you right you do not even intend to correct <br> to <br/> you just change it so that it becomes acceptable to your highlighter and it is probably also fine with you if people continue to write <br> and not <br/> in their contributions to Wikipedia as this is the normal way of HTML5. This "a" but also "b" seems to be part of the Wikipedia philosophy, which is inclusive, accommodating, and tolerant even if this makes Wikipedia a bit chaotic. Thanks for your time Johannes Schade (talk) 10:48, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for great editing!

		The Copyeditor's Barnstar
		Your edits and explanations are always very helpful and constructive, and you have an amazing eye for detail! Thanks, it is great working with you! RLO1729 (talk) 03:13, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

Thank you. The pleasure is mutual. Don't hesitate to call again if I can help. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:39, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

January 2020 Tree of Life Newsletter

January 2020—Issue 010

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Megarachne by Ichthyovenator Christmas imperial pigeon by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by FunkMonk Paranthropus by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by IJReid Orcinus meyeri by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Enwebb Christmas darter by Enwebb and Cwmhiraeth, reviewed by J Milburn Saxifragales by Michael Goodyear, reviewed by starsandwhales Segnosaurus by FunkMonk, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Dryopithecus by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Drosophila subobscura by Andrewoh29, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Egyptian fruit bat by Enwebb, reviewed by FunkMonk Scale insect by Chiswick Chap and Cwhmiraeth, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77

Newly nominated content

Wolf by LittleJerry Segnosaurus by FunkMonk The Goldfinch (painting) by Jimfbleak Dryomyza anilis by AnuBalasubramanian Pigs in culture by Chiswick Chap Coronariae by Michael Goodyear Neanderthal by Dunkleosteus77 Gharial by BhagyaMani Honeynut squash by Ɱ James John Joicey by RLO1729 Gigantorhynchus by Mattximus Ardipithecus ramidus by Dunkleosteus77

News at a Glance

• In a major milestone for the automated taxobox system, more taxa articles now use automatic taxoboxes than manual ones. Particularly robust groups for automatic taxoboxes are turtles, primates, birds, rodents, amphibians and reptiles, sharks, and bivalves, with each project adopting automatic taxoboxes at rates greater than 95%. Only the fungi, arthropods, and microbiology projects had automatic taxobox adoption rates less than 25%. Read more in the 1 January update.
• Thanks to user Trappist the monk, all citations to the IUCN using Template:Cite web or Template:Cite journal have now been swapped to Template:Cite iucn. This will prevent a recurrence of massive link failure should the IUCN change its URL format again. That does not address the 14.5k articles that cite the IUCN without the use of templates. For more background discussion, see here and here.

Vital Articles

The vital articles project on English Wikipedia began in 2004 when an editor transferred a list from Meta-Wiki: List of articles every Wikipedia should have. The first incarnation of the list became what is now level 3. As of 2019, there are 5 levels of vital articles:

• Level 1: the 10 most vital articles (2009)
• Level 2: the 100 most vital articles (2009)
• Level 3: the 1,000 most vital articles (2004)
• Level 4: the 10,000 most vital articles (2006)
• Level 5: the 50,000 most vital articles (2017)

Each level is inclusive of all previous levels, meaning that the 1,000 Level 3 articles include those listed on Levels 2 and 1. Below is an overview of the distribution of vital articles, and the quality of the articles. While the ultimate goal of the vital articles project is to have Featured-class articles, I also considered Good Articles to be "complete" for the purposes of this list.

Animals (1,148 designated out of projected 2,400)

Cnidarians (5/8): 62.5% complete

Echinoderms (3/6): 50% complete

Insects (30/70): 42.9% complete

Invertebrates + others (10/27): 37% complete

Other arthropods (3/10): 30% complete

Reptiles (25/85): 29.4% complete

Amphibians (6/22): 27.3% complete

Porifera (1/4): 25% complete

Mammals (68/319): 21.3% complete

Mollusks (2/19): 21.1% complete

Arachnids (3/17): 17.6% complete

Birds (33/187): 17.6% complete

Animal breeds and hybrids (19/112): 17% complete

Crustaceans (3/25): 12% complete

Fishes (11/134): 8.2% complete

Agnatha (0/4): 0% complete

Plants, fungi, and other organisms (510 designated out of projected 1,200)

Fungi (4/33): 12.1% complete

Other organisms—Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya (5/62): 8.1% complete

Vegetables (6/96): 6.7% complete

Monocots (2/35): 5.7% complete

Edible fruits (5/95): 5.3% complete

Non-flowering plants (1/30): 3.3% complete

Edible seeds, grains, nuts (1/69): 1.4% complete

Non-monocots (1/88): 1.1% complete

Carnivorous plants (0/2): 0% complete

Many articles have yet to be designated for Tree of Life taxonomic groups, with 1,942 outstanding articles to be added. Anyone can add vital articles to the list! Restructuring may be necessary, as the only viruses included as of yet are under the category "Health". The majority of vital articles needing improvement are level 5, but here are some outstanding articles from the other levels:

Level 2

· Life · Human · Plant

Level 3

· Abiogenesis · Death · Cell · Human evolution · Organism · Zoology · Cattle · Dog · Reptile · Flower · Nut · Seed · Algae · Eukaryote · Biodiversity · Extinction · Photosynthesis

Level 4

· Sexual dimorphism · Feather · Fur · Hair · Gill · Plant anatomy · Plant morphology · Berry · Leaf · Root · Stoma · Shrub · Plant stem · Bark · Trunk · Epidermis · Ground tissue · Meristem · Vascular tissue · Vascular cambium · Hypha · Mycelium

January DYKs

Fossil teeth of Alopias palatasi

LuEsther T. Mertz Library

The Central Park mandarin duck

Christmas Island red crab

Salvador Dalí with his pet ocelot Babou

Passionvine bug

Tansy beetle

Winter bell

Doubleband surgeonfish

• ... that the extinct giant thresher shark Alopias palatasi is the only one of its kind to possess serrated teeth (pictured)? (1 January)
• ... that Dogor, an 18,000-year-old canine puppy, may represent a common ancestor of the dog and the wolf? (2 January)
• ... that the Caton Oak in Lancashire, England, was reputed to be a site of worship by druids? (4 January)
• ... that the LuEsther T. Mertz Library (pictured), one of the world's largest botanical libraries, had 6.5 million plant specimens and 75 percent of the world's systematic botany literature in 2002? (4 January)
• ... that Australian biologist Lee Berger identified Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis as being responsible for the decline and extinction of hundreds of amphibian species? (5 January)
• ... that the beetle Zaitzevia thermae has a total habitat of less than 35 square metres (380 sq ft) around one hot spring in Montana? (6 January)
• ... that the Anatolian frog is exported from Turkey to France, Italy and Switzerland for food, and is considered by the IUCN to be a near-threatened species? (6 January)
• ... that the stems and leaves of the endangered Holloway's crystalwort look as if they are covered in sugar crystals? (8 January)
• ... that a severe infestation of the palm weevil borer can kill its host palm? (9 January)
• ... that a mandarin duck (pictured) that appeared in New York City's Central Park became an international celebrity, with followers whom the Associated Press called "quackarazzi"? (10 January)
• ... that the Lac La Croix Indian Pony was recreated from a breeding population of four mares by crossing them with a Spanish Mustang? (11 January)
• ... that the female Savannah darter lays clutches of sticky eggs that she buries in gravel or sand? (12 January)
• ... that the Malayan banded pitta is threatened by the destruction of its forest habitat and by being targeted for the illegal trade in birds? (12 January)
• ... that in 2007, a rescued European bison calf dubbed Pubal grew so attached to humans in southeastern Poland that he could not be successfully reintegrated back into the wild? (13 January)
• ... that evolutionary biologist Rebecca Kilner has found that mites can give burying beetles a competitive advantage? (13 January)
• ... that jellyfish blooms can clog coastal power plants, causing losses of tens of thousands of US dollars per day? (14 January)
• ... that redbanded thrips are a significant pest of mango and cacao in the West Indies? (15 January)
• ... that the red crabs (example pictured) dominating the wildlife of Christmas Island have been threatened by the arrival of yellow crazy ants? (15 January)
• ... that Anisocentropus krampus was described in the same paper as other insects with monstrous names like Ganonema dracula and Anisocentropus golem? (16 January)
• ... that in France, the beetle Aepus marinus is restricted to a narrow strip of the beach near the high-water mark? (17 January)
• ... that the palm scale was first found on an endemic species of palm on the island of Réunion, but now infests plants in at least 78 families around the world? (17 January)
• ... that artist Salvador Dalí claimed that his pet ocelot (both pictured) was an ordinary domestic cat that he had "painted over in an op art design"? (18 January)
• ... that a whale found in western Vermont has presented further evidence of glaciation in New England? (19 January)
• ... that hosts of the passionvine bug (example pictured) include coffee, citrus, mung bean, squash, and mango? (21 January)
• ... that the lizard goby holds on to rocks in fast-flowing water by means of a "sucker" formed from two fins? (21 January)
• ... that the egg sacs of the newly discovered Phinda button spider are made of bright purple silk that fades to grey when it dries? (22 January)
• ... that the nationally rare tansy beetle (example pictured) survives at Acaster South Ings, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near York, England? (23 January)
• ... that chitons, such as Acanthochitona crinita, are molluscs with a shell composed of eight separate articulating valves? (25 January)
• ... that the main pollinators of the winter bell (pictured) are the singing honeyeater and the red wattlebird? (26 January)
• ... that with a stretched length of up to 20 cm (8 in), Pontobdella muricata is one of the largest marine leeches? (28 January)
• ... that not only does Couma utilis have edible fruit, its latex is used as a base for chewing gum, caulking boats, and whitewashing houses? (29 January)
• ... that the doubleband surgeonfish (example pictured) can turn a dark brown shade flushed with red or violet when stressed? (30 January)

Discuss this issue

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You are more than welcome to continue making quality contributions to Wikipedia. If your account is more than four days old and you have made at least 10 edits you can create articles yourself without posting a request. However, you may continue submitting work to Articles for Creation if you prefer.

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Thank you for helping improve Wikipedia!

MurielMary (talk) 09:12, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

Thank you. SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:00, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

February 2020 Tree of Life Newsletter

February 2020—Issue 011

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Segnosaurus by FunkMonk The Goldfinch (painting) by Jimfbleak Gharial by BhagyaMani, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Steller's sea ape by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Hog Farm Poinsettia by Enwebb, reviewed by Starsandwhales Honeynut squash by Ɱ, reviewed by Ealdgyth

Newly nominated content

Danuvius guggenmosi by Dunkleosteus77 Denisovan by Dunkleosteus77 Homo luzonensis by Dunkleosteus77 Homo naledi by Dunkleosteus77 Horseshoe bat by Enwebb Cimicidae by Cwmhiraeth and Chiswick Chap

News at a Glance

• The Great Britain and Ireland Destubathon began on 1 March and runs for the entire month. Expansion of any stubs related to Great Britain and Ireland is welcome, inclusive of taxa. There are also monetary prizes for winners of specific categories in the form of Amazon gift cards. PetScan could be useful here to find the intersection of Stub-class articles and other categories: Biota of Ireland; Biota of Great Britain; Biota of the Isle of Man
• The WP:WikiCup just completed its first round. Dunkleosteus77 had the most points of any Tree of Life editor, with 5 GAs and 6 GARs. Other Tree of Life editors moving on to round two include Enwebb, Sainsf, starsandwhales, Guettarda, and Casliber.
• Some winners of the 2019 Wiki Science Competition have been announced. For the finalists and winners, see here.

• 
  Daphnia giving birth (Poland)
• 
  Immunofluorescence staining of a mouse intestine, "Microscopy" (Australia)
• 
  Bat scientist Lauri Lutsar determining the age of a bat, "People In Science" (Estonia)
• 
  Close-up view of a bioluminescent beetle Elateroidea, "Wildlife and Nature" (France)
• 
  Coral fluorescence, "General Category" (Russia)
• 
  Paleoanthropologist at work, "People in Science" (Italy)
• 
  Ammonite fossil from Morocco, "General Category" (Spain)
• 
  Yellow orange-tip male (Ixias pyrene), "Wildlife and Nature" (India)

The spread of coronavirus across Wikipedia

With the outbreak of a novel coronavirus dominating news coverage, Wikipedia content related to the virus has seen much higher interest. Tree of Life content of particular interest to readers has included viruses, bats, pangolins, and masked palm civets. Viruses saw the most dramatic growth in readership: Coronavirus, which was the 105th most popular virus article in December 2019 with about 400 views per day, averaged over a quarter million views each day of January 2020. Total monthly viewership of the top-10 virus articles ballooned from about 1.5 million to nearly 20 million.

Top 10 WikiProject Virus articles in December 2019 vs. January 2020

	December 2019	January 2020	Rank change
1	Gastroenteritis	Coronavirus	+104
2	HIV/AIDS	2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak	NA
3	Norovirus	2019 novel coronavirus	NA
4	Smallpox	Severe acute respiratory syndrome	+47
5	Shingles	Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)	NA
6	Measles	Spanish flu	+3
7	HIV	Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus	+124
8	Influenza	List of epidemics	+54
9	Spanish flu	Timeline of the 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak	NA
10	Dengue fever	Coronaviridae	+490
Total views	1,466,143‬	19,845,246

Viewership of the articles Bat, Bat-borne virus, Horseshoe bat, and Bat as food from 15 Jan. 2020 to 10 Feb. 2020

From October 2019 – December 2019, the top ten most popular bat articles fluctuated among 16 different articles, with the December viewership of those 10 articles at 209,280. For January 2020, three articles broke into the top-10 that were not among the 16 articles of the prior three months: Bat as food, Horseshoe bat, and Bat-borne virus. Viewership of the top-10 bat articles spiked nearly 300% to 617,067 in January.

While bats have been implicated as a possible natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, an intermediate host may be the bridge between bats and humans. Pangolins have been hypothesized as the intermediate host for the virus, causing a large spike in typical page views of 2-3k each day up to more than 60k in a day. Masked palm civets, the intermediate host of SARS, saw a modest yet noticeable spike in page views as well, from 100 to 300 views per day to as many as 5k views per day.

With an increase in viewers came an increase in editors. In an interview, longtime virus editor Awkwafaba identified the influx of editors as the biggest challenge in editing content related to the coronavirus. They noted that these newcomers include "novices who make honest mistakes and get tossed about a bit in the mad activity" as well as "experienced editors who know nothing about viruses and are good researchers, yet aren't familiar with the policies of WP:ToL or WP:Viruses." Disruption also increased, with extended confirmed protection (also known as the 30/500 rule, which prevents editors with fewer than 30 days tenure and 500 edits from making edits and is typically used on a very small subset of Wikipedia articles) temporarily applied to Coronavirus and still active on Template:2019–20 coronavirus outbreak data. New editors apparently seeking to correct misinformation continuously edited the article Bat as food to remove content related to China: Videos of Chinese people eating bat soup were misrepresented to be current or filmed in China, when at least one such video was several years old and filmed in Palau. However, reliable sources confirm that bats are eaten in China, especially Southern China, so these well-meaning edits were mostly removed.

Another level of complexity was added by the fluctuating terminology of the virus. Over a dozen moves and merges were requested within WikiProject Viruses. To give you an idea of the musical chairs happening with article titles, here are the move histories of two articles:

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

• Began as Wuhan coronavirus on 9 January
• Moved to 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 16 January
• Moved to Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 19 January
• Moved to 2019 novel coronavirus on 9 February
• Moved to Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 on 18 February (current name)

2019–20 coronavirus outbreak

• Began as 2019-2020 China pneumonia outbreak on 5 January
• Moved to 2019–20 China pneumonia outbreak on 5 January
• Moved to 2019-20 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China on 15 January
• Moved to 2019-20 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 15 January
• Moved to 2019–20 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 15 January
• Moved to 2019–20 outbreak of novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV on 23 January
• Moved to 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak on 23 January
• Moved to 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak on 18 February (current name)

Awkwafaba noted that "the main authorities, WHO and ICTV, don't really have a process for speedily naming a virus or disease." Additionally, they have different criteria for naming. They said, "I remember in a move discussion from the article then called Wuhan coronavirus that a virus name cannot have a geographical location in it, but this is a WHO disease naming guideline, and not an ICTV virus naming rule. ICTV may have renamed Four Corners virus to Sin Nombre orthohantavirus but there are still plenty of official virus species names that don't abide by WHO guidelines."

February DYKs

Thistle broomrape

Painting of the Shelton Oak

Female A. diabolicum flowers with curled stigmas

• ... that juvenile ornate surgeonfish are quite different in colouring from the adult fish? (1 February)
• ... that Quarry Moor is one of the few locations in England where the rare parasitic plant thistle broomrape (example pictured) grows? (2 February)
• ... that the hollow Shelton Oak (pictured) near Shrewsbury was so big that a party of eight could dance a quadrille inside it? (3 February)
• ... that growth in the brown seaweed Zanardinia typus occurs at the base of the hairs that grow around the edge of the frond? (4 February)
• ... that entomologist Karim Vahed led the team that found a cricket species in which the testes accounted for 14 percent of the insect's body mass? (4 February)
• ... that the ant Acropyga exsanguis shares its nest with several species of mealybug, including Geococcus coffeae? (4 February)
• ... that no fungi or algae are listed as endangered or threatened by the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board? (5 February)
• ... that the blue pitta is a shy, secretive bird, but will respond to a recording of its call? (5 February)
• ... that Acer diabolicum, the devil maple, gets its scientific and common names from the curly stigmas of its flowers (pictured)? (6 February)
• ... that the alga Acetabularia acetabulum (pictured) resembles a green parasol? (7 February)
• ... that Bishop Monkton Ings in North Yorkshire, England, provides a habitat to the semi-parasitic marsh lousewort? (9 February)
• ... that although the bird of paradise fly was first described from an Angophora tree, it is quite likely that this is not the insect's host plant? (11 February)
• ... that Hack Fall Wood in North Yorkshire, England, hosts the rare lemon slug (example pictured)? (13 February)
• ... that the hairy sea cucumber has long tube feet on its dorsal surface, giving it a furry appearance? (14 February)
• ... that Diego (pictured) "had so much sex he saved his species"? (15 February)
• ... that common lousewort owes its name to the belief that livestock that ate it would become lousy? (16 February)
• ... that groups of social feather dusters sway in unison in the water current and retract into their tubes at the slightest disturbance (16 February)
• ... that the copepod Mesocyclops longisetus can be used in the biological control of mosquitoes? (17 February)
• ... that the specific name of Pterophorus pentadactyla, commonly known as the white plume moth, comes from the Greek for 'five fingers'? (22 February)
• ... that the laciniate conch (shell pictured) is able to flip itself off the seabed using its muscular foot? (25 February)

• 
  A. acetabulum caps
• 
  Lemon slug
• 
  Diego in 2009
• 
  Five views of a laciniate conch shell

Discuss this issue

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Athetis hongkongensis edits

many thanks for your edits. There is one major point of issue - the classification of Noctuidae; Athetis is not (nor has been, if ever) in Acronictinae (which was redefined in a much stricter sense in, &/or following, work by Zahiri, and others). Please see my comment at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Lepidoptera#Article_and_task_requests for a more detailed list of references that give the situation more completely. Many thanks. HKmoths (talk) 07:47, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

@HKmoths: Thank you for fixing my error. I am a copy editor rather than a biologist and I added the stub template to match the other articles for that genus. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  04:11, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

March 2020 Tree of Life Newsletter

March 2020—Issue 012

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Argentinosaurus by Slate Weasel and Jens Lallensack Wolf by LittleJerry Horseshoe bat by Enwebb, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Cimicidae by Cwmhiraeth and Chiswick Chap, reviewed by Enwebb Coronariae by Michael Goodyear, reviewed by Dank Ardipithecus ramidus by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by starsandwhales Ooedigera by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Hog Farm Bathyphysa conifera by Awkwafaba, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Calliphora vomitoria by Y.shiuan, reviewed by Jens Lallensack

Newly nominated content

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations by Britishfinance Bathyphysa conifera by Awkwafaba Moniliformidae by Mattximus Disease X by Britishfinance Mandarin Patinkin by Rhododendrites

News at a glance

• A year of the Tree of Life Newsletter: Thank you to all the subscribers who have been with us from the beginning or have joined along the way, and to those who have contributed their time to producing this newsletter. I've really valued your ideas, copyediting, and willingness to be interviewed. Onwards and upwards!
• April marks the start of the GAN Backlog Drive, which continues through the end of May. The goal of this backlog elimination drive is to cut the number of outstanding GANs, in particular those which have been in the queue 90 days or more. All hands welcome, new and old.
• The finalists of the US Wiki Science Competition have been announced. Illustrating Wikipedia articles can be challenging, so these new images represent a chance to find suitable media for our articles. For all images uploaded in the Wiki Science Competition, see here and click "all images" in the upper right corner.

• 
  Fly's mouth and tongue (Microscopy)
• 
  Killer whales hunting a crabeater seal (Wildlife)
• 
  Fossilized tooth of a Squalicorax shark (Microscopy)
• 
  Flourescent coral (Non-photographic media)

A new WikiProject responding to the pandemic

The newest Tree of Life WikiProject is about a taxon that is dominating the headlines, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and its many effects. We interviewed Another Believer, the founder of WikiProject COVID-19.

This interview has been edited for length. Find the full interview here.

1. Please describe how you went about creating WikiProject COVID-19. What made you think a project was needed?

   I've been following the outbreak and editing related Wikipedia articles since January. I'm not particularly interested in infectious diseases or viruses, but I've been to China a few times and wanted to monitor the outbreak's impact on society as well as the government's response. For a while, I was casually tracking updates to the first couple pages about the outbreak. Then a pattern began to emerge as February saw the creation of separate articles about outbreaks in Iran, Italy, and South Korea. New Wikipedia articles continued being created in early March, and the outbreak was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11. Knowing there would many more articles, lists, templates, illustrations, and other pages on Wikipedia, I created WikiProject COVID-19 on March 15. My goal was simply to create a temporary or permanent space for editors to collaborate, communicate, and focus specifically on content related to this ongoing pandemic. I'm a member of many WikiProjects and have created several before, but this one definitely felt more necessary and urgent. Most WikiProjects unite editors with similar interests, which is fine and serves a purpose, but I felt this project could have a much bigger real life impact. I don't think I was alone in my thinking; the project had 80 members by March 20 and 100 members by March 26.

2. Who or what was invaluable to getting off the ground?

   If I'm being honest, getting this project off the ground required little work on my part. All I did was create the space and post invitations to existing talk pages related to the outbreak. Editors joined the project very quickly; 30 members joined on the same day I started the project, and there were more than 50 participants one day later. I've been a daily Wikipedia editor for more than 12 years, and I've never seen so much interest in a project or content added to Wikipedia about a specific topic in such a short period of time. WikiProject members worked expeditiously to build a framework and hang a barnstar, tagging related pages, assessing content, and starting talk page discussions about the project's goals and scope. I'm thankful to the many editors who pitched in to get the project established, and I look forward to seeing how editors collaborate in this space as we move forward.

3. What are the short-term goals of the project?

   No specific goals have been posted to the project page yet, but I'd like to think members share a collective desire to ensure Wikipedia has accurate and reliable information about the disease and pandemic. Disinformation and misinformation seem rampant these days, so we're working to give readers around the globe access to accurate, objective, and possibly even life-saving information. Unlike some WikiProjects which may take a more historical approach to documenting certain topics, WikiProject COVID-19 members have the ability to mitigate the disease's spread in real time by arming communities with facts about outbreaks in their region as well as information about prevention, testing, vaccine research, societal impact, etc.

   

   Viewership of WikiProject Medicine, WikiProject Viruses, and WikiProject COVID-19 in the month of March 2020

4. What are the long-term goals? English Wikipedia has many of 'lumpers' who think there are too many projects already. The project has also inspired the creation of two portals, which I imagine caused some raised eyebrows in this trend of portal deletionism. What will come of the WP after the current outbreak subsides?

   After creating WikiProject COVID-19, a couple editors said I should have created a task force instead of a standalone WikiProject. I wasn't bothered. The number of 'thank you' notifications I received for creating the page vastly outweighed these critical comments. I knew the page I created was much needed, and I would be fine if editors decide to call the page by another name. I understand some editors think there are too many WikiProjects. No one's required to join WikiProject COVID-19, but the 100+ of us who have already joined invite you to help with our efforts, if you're interested. As for the project's future, I would be fine if editors decided to convert the WikiProject into a task force, or even put the project into retirement if the time comes. Given the level of interest and impact the pandemic has already had on a global scale, I have a feeling the WikiProject will be active for a long time.

5. Another criticism of the project is its narrow focus. It is focused on only one strain of virus, and the disease it causes. Even WikiProject AIDS is about two species of virus. Is the scope of the project too small? What would an expanded scope look like? Why would including another virus strain in the same species, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus which causes SARS, not be wanted? or is it wanted?

   Narrow focus? I disagree. The project may focus on a single virus and disease, but the pandemic has resulted in the creation of hundreds of Wikipedia articles documenting outbreaks in most countries and territories. There are pages covering the pandemic's impact on aviation, cinema, education, politics, religion, sports, and television, not to mention others related to the resulting economic turmoil. Additionally, there are hundreds of templates, charts, and other graphics. Who knows how many thousands of images and other media will be uploaded at Wikimedia Commons by the time this pandemic subsides? There's also COVID-19 WikiProject COVID-19 at Wikidata, and I wouldn't be surprised if similar spaces are created for other Wikimedia projects soon. Even if the focus is narrow, there's plenty of content for Wikimedians to improve and protect.

6. In your opinion, what should be the guidelines for creating a new project, as opposed to creating a task force or working under an existing WikiProject?

   I don't feel strongly about new project creation guidelines, or the differences between WikiProjects and task forces. Project members should decide what structure works for them and call themselves whatever name they prefer. I understand project construction requires maintenance and can come at an administrative cost, but we should be careful about discouraging editors from proposing new projects.

   Ideally, editors would only create a new WikiProject if at least a few others were committed to joining. I created WikiProject COVID-19 without conferring with others because I assumed the interest would be there. I encourage people to be bold and create project pages, but maybe ask a few other editors for feedback first. I'll let other editors worry about the guidelines.

7. What tools (templates, bots, etc.) are essential, or even just really helpful, for organizing and maintaining a successful project? What is something every WP should do, that maybe isn't doing now?

   I appreciate the standard WikiProject assessment framework. AlexNewArtBot and Article alerts have also been very helpful.

8. What have you learned about Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or COVID-19 during this process that surprised you?

   I don't have any sort of medical background, and I'm more interested in the pandemic's impact than details about the disease or virus. Most surprising to me has been the lack of preparedness for combating outbreaks by governments around the world, including here in the United States. I don't know how COVID-19's spread compares to other infectious diseases, but as I've watched the outbreak develop I've continually wondered why governments did not start preparing earlier. What was happening in China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea should have prompted action sooner.

9. What important things about 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic do you think folks should know and maybe have missed in the deluge of information coming at people?

   1. Know the most common symptoms: cough, fever, and difficulty breathing.

   2. Learn what behavioral adjustments you should make to protect yourself and reduce transmission, and remember to wash your hands.

   3. Get your information from reputable sources. I'd like to think Wikipedia editors are pretty good at this last bit of advice.

Thank you to Another Believer for your time, both in this interview and in this project. Interested readers can join WikiProject COVID-19. And please stay safe and healthy out there. --Awkwafaba

March DYKs

• ... that Calamagrostis intermedia is the dominant plant of the grassy páramo in Ecuador's El Cajas National Park? (March 1)
• ... that the blood-sucking bug Primicimex cavernis survives in a cave in Texas while the bats on which it feeds overwinter elsewhere? (March 2)
• ... that the worm Phyllodoce lineata is a predator and scavenger, feeding mostly on other polychaetes? (March 4)
• ... that the crested oyster has been eaten by humans for at least 6,000 years? (March 5)
• ... that larvae of the tube worm Hydroides ezoensis prefer to settle on a substrate already inhabited by other worms of their own species? (March 14)
• ... that the sea slug Berthella ocellata hides during the day and feeds on sponges such as Corticium candelabrum at night? (March 18)
• ... that the sea cucumber Actinopyga agassizii has five teeth surrounding its anus? (March 19)
• ... that unlike most soft scale insects, the adult female pyriform scale is able to move around? (March 20)
• ... that in Florida, winged termites are sometimes found stuck to wet foliage, buildings, or vehicles after rain? (March 23)
• ... that despite being known as the Kerry lily, the perennial plant has a much wider distribution outside Ireland? (March 24)
• ... that in 1725 Hans Sloane described a plant he called Prickly-Pole as the Jamaican tree species that was "the most fit to make Rods and Scowrers for Guns"? (March 25)
• ... that a deep-sea fish known as a black ruff was caught in a salmon net in the Firth of Forth and donated to the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art in 1901? (March 29)
• ... that the flowering plant Gentianella anglica is found only in Great Britain? (March 30)

Discuss this issue

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Alec H. Chisholm

Dear SchreiberBike, your edits on Alec H. Chisholm make the article look and read so much better - thank you for your sterling efforts! James Jamesmcardle^(talk) 22:11, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

@Jamesmcardle: Thank you so much. If you have any questions or disagreements, feel free to bring them up with me. I may be inadvertently changing Australian to US English, so if anything looks wrong, revert as needed. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  22:14, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Genus Psaliodes

Hi SchreiberBike, about a year ago you merged Psaliodes fervescens with the genus page, Psaliodes. However, the references provided on the article page do not support that it is indeed monotypic. Perhaps a point of confusion is that the North American Moth Photographers Group (MPG) lists a single species only for North America north of Mexico. The references that do not draw from MPG list many more species worldwide. Is there a newer classification that would contradict this? 'Cheers, Loopy30 (talk) 22:32, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

@Loopy30: Thanks for your note. I can't say I remember doing that one, but most likely my reason for doing it was at Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms (Savela). I see from LepIndex, and the other sources linked in the article, that Savela is in the minority in thinking it is monotypic. I suspect that all the others are copied from LepIndex, which has not been updated in a while. I am not aware of any recent articles on the subject explaining why Savela made the choice he did. If you think LepIndex and the others are probably right, I will get to work on fixing the genus article to match the other sources. Thank you, SchreiberBike | ⌨  23:01, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

At the Savela link you provide, which is also ref #1 of the article, the entry draws from two sources that both only cover North America north of Mexico. I do not believe that the information there is incorrect, just not complete in a worldwide scope. As the type species was collected in Brazil, if the sole North American species was now found to be monotypic, it would be then given a new genus name and could not use the name Psaliodes. Happy Easter, Loopy30 (talk) 23:35, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

I'll work on it tonight. SchreiberBike | ⌨  23:43, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I fear that while many of Savela's listings may support the presence of a species in a particular genus, it is not complete enough to be sufficient to determine the absence of additional species. See also Ninodes which appears to be in the same situation. Loopy30 (talk) 12:02, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

@Loopy30: I'll look into that tonight. Let me know if you find any others. SchreiberBike | ⌨  23:59, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

April 2020 Tree of Life Newsletter

April 2020—Issue 013

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Danuvius guggenmosi by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by J Milburn Neanderthal by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Homo luzonensis by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Lythronax by FunkMonk, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Ichthyovenator by PaleoGeekSquared, reviewed by FunkMonk Secretarybird by LittleJerry, Aa77zz and Casliber, reviewed by The Rambling Man James John Joicey by RLO1729, reviewed by The Rambling Man Homo naledi by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Vermilion flycatcher by CaptainEek, reviewed by HickoryOughtShirt?4 Canada lynx by Sainsf, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Alice Gray by Rhododendrites, reviewed by The Rambling Man Caryodendron orinocense by CPC273, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Jaguarundi by Sainsf, reviewed by Usernameunique Gigantopithecus by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Starsandwhales Denisovan by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Starsandwhales Disease X by Britishfinance, reviewed by DannyS712

Newly nominated content

Lythronax by FunkMonk, Lythronaxargestes and IJReid Ichthyovenator by PaleoGeekSquared Neanderthal by Dunkleosteus77 Alpine newt by Tylototriton Secretarybird by LittleJerry, Aa77zz and Casliber List of ursids by PresN Borchgrevinkium by Super Dromaeosaurus Caryodendron orinocense by CPC273 Siamosaurus by PaleoGeekSquared Canada lynx by Sainsf Vietnam mouse-deer by Sainsf Jaguarundi by Sainsf Vermilion flycatcher by CaptainEek Alice Gray by Rhododendrites Gigantopithecus by Dunkleosteus77 Paleobiota of the Posidonia Shale by Yewtharaptor Meerkat by Sainsf

News at a glance

• WikiProject Birds gained a new task force. A discussion determined that WikiProject Poultry might be more successful as a task force, with the move completed 15 April.
• Round 2 of the WikiCup wrapped up this month. Several editors moved on to Round 3 by scoring points in biodiversity-related areas, including Sainsf, Casliber, Dunkleosteus77, CaptainEek, Guettarda, and Enwebb. Dunkleosteus77 finished at the top of the Tree of Life pack with 608 points, finishing 9th overall in the round.
• After a relatively quiet February and March, with only 11 total articles nominated for GA and none for FAC, April brought a shower of nominations. In total, 5 articles were nominated for FAC, 1 for FLC, and 11 for GA.

Tree of Life's growing featured content

Inspired by a March 2020 post at WikiProject Medicine detailing the growth of Featured Articles over time, we decided to reproduce that table here, adding a second table showing the growth of Good Articles. Tree of Life articles are placed in the "Biology" category for FAs, which has seen a growth of 381% since 2008. Only two other subjects had a greater growth than Biology: Business, economics, and finance; and Warfare.

Percentage Growth in FA Categories, 2008–2019, Legend:

Considerably above average, Above average, Average

Below average , Considerably below average, Poor

Featured Article Category as of	Feb 23, 2008	Sep 16, 2008	Sep 16, 2010	Dec 1, 2011	Jan 1, 2015	Jan 1, 2020	Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2011	Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2020
Art, architecture and archaeology	65	72	117	128	175	271	97%	317%
Awards, decorations and vexillology	24	26	28	27	26	24	1.3%	0%
Biology	130	155	261	326	456	625	151%	381%
Business, economics and finance	16	19	22	44	73	116	175%	625%
Chemistry and mineralogy	29	31	34	37	40	46	28%	59%
Computing	17	17	17	18	16	14	5.9%	−18%
Culture and society	40	48	61	65	77	104B	63%	160%
Education	30	34	36	38	40	40	27%	33%
Engineering and technology	35	37	38	40	43	49	14%	40%
Food and drink	11	11	9	13	17	21B	18%	91%
Geography and places	148	158	181	185	213	232	25%	57%
Geology and geophysics	9	12	18	20	23	29	122%	222%
Health and medicine	31	36	42	43	51	52	39%	68%
History	146	154	189	201	239	308	38%	111%
Language and linguistics	17	15	13	13	12	15	−24%	−12%
Law	29	34	41	49	65	72	69%	148%
Literature and theatre	108	134	161	191	258	316B	77%	193%
Mathematics	13	14	19	17	18	18	31%	38%
Media	159	171	221	231	324	424	45%	167%
Meteorology	61	78	111	126	147	168	107%	175%
Music	153	182	232	254	331	398	66%	160%
Philosophy and psychology	12	13	12	12	12	14	0%	17%
Physics and astronomy	67	82	98	101	127	153	51%	128%
Politics and government	62	67	98	117	166	217	89%	250%
Religion, mysticism and mythology	36	44	73	84	105	121	133%	236%
Royalty, nobility and heraldry	75	90	94	108	124	173	44%	131%
Sport and recreation	119	162	268	298	365	449	150%	277%
Transport	47	74	107	128	171	213	172%	353%
Video gaming	72	96	127	137	180	222	90%	208%
Warfare	145	173	318	366	537	729	152%	403%
Total	1,906	2,239	3,046	3,417	4,431	5,695 A	79.3%	198.8%

• Note A: Total is off by one; not worth looking for the error.
• Note B Three food biographies moved [1] per discussion at WT:FAC
• Note: The very odd dates used in earlier years result from pulling old data from the talk page at WP:FAS.

Good Article Category as of	Feb 23, 2008	Sep 16, 2008	Sep 16, 2010	Dec 1, 2011	Jan 1, 2015	Jan 1, 2020	Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2011	Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2020
Agriculture, food and drink	27	34	37	55	113	226	104%	737%
Art and architecture	134	188	321	450	683	1022	236%	663%
Engineering and technology	256	396	882	1198	1828	2407	368%	840%
Geography and places	191	248	424	523	716	1052	174%	451%
History	261	312	651	825	1219	1894	216%	626%
Language and literature	173	215	377	462	686	982	167%	468%
Mathematics	19	22	27	30	36	67	58%	253%
Media and drama	403	658	1352	1300	3070	3961	223%	883%
Music	357	527	997	1437	2532	3892	303%	990%
Natural sciences	544	686	1275	1717	2404	3426	216%	530%
Philosophy and religion	134	174	244	294	365	557	119%	316%
Social sciences and society	468	549	790	998	1430	1854	113%	296%
Sports and recreation	384	546	1074	1402	2350	3802	265%	890%
Video games	168	220	373	443	684	1349	164%	703%
Warfare	155	241	989	1654	2544	3996	967%	2478%
Total	3674	5016	9813	12788	20660	30487	248%	730%
Organisms*	119	130	402	528	685	1017	344%	755%

*subset of natural sciences

Unsurprisingly, the number of GAs has increased more rapidly than the number of FAs. Organisms, which is a subcategory of Natural sciences, has seen a GA growth of 755% since 2008, besting the Natural sciences overall growth of 530%. While Warfare had far and away the most significant growth of GAs, it's a clear outlier relative to other categories.

April DYKs

Jenny

White-throated round-eared bat

Formica fusca ants tending mealybugs

• ... that the human-like behaviour of Jenny (depicted), a resident of London Zoo, reinforced Charles Darwin's view that humans were "created from animals"? (3 April)
• ... that white-throated round-eared bats (example pictured) roost in cavities in active termite mounds excavated by the males? (4 April)
• ... that flatter mires in montane regions of Europe are often dominated by deergrass and cottongrass? (5 April)
• ... that the white-browed tit-warbler has been found to practice cooperative breeding? (6 April)
• ... that most species in the palm genus Desmoncus climb using grappling hook–like structures called acanthopylls? (7 April)
• ... that some ants herd scale insects (example pictured)? (10 April)
• ... that birds, bats and humans are the main hosts of members of the bed bug family? (12 April)
• ... that the sponge Aplysina cavernicola (pictured) has been used as a model organism to monitor the presence of isotopes such as americium-241 in seawater? (16 April)
• ... that although the alpine bartsia has a wide range in Europe and North America, it is known in the British Isles only from a few locations in northern England and the central Scottish Highlands? (19 April)
• ... that the orange-band surgeonfish (pictured) can change colour from dark to light almost instantaneously? (21 April)
• ... that the parasitic greater broomrape usually grows on the roots of the common broom or the European gorse? (24 April)
• ... that the tree Macaranga triloba encourages the ants that defend it by providing them with food bodies? (25 April)
• ... that amateur entomologist James John Joicey had a collection of 1.5 million butterflies? (28 April)
• ... that the globe chamomile (pictured), a member of the daisy family native to South Africa, infests parts of Arizona and California? (28 April)
• ... that the bicoloured sedge (pictured) was part of an attempted botanical fraud? (30 April)

• 
  A. cavernicola
• 
  Orange-band surgeonfish
• 
  Bicoloured sedge
• 
  Globe chamomile blooms

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.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:40, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

St. Francis satyr butterfly

My apologies for not checking before accepting that we already had an article. Theroadislong (talk) 21:51, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

@Theroadislong: Thanks for your note. It's not a problem. We'll get it fixed. SchreiberBike | ⌨  21:55, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Editor's Barnstar
	Thanks for fixing all my typos and copy editing on Atriplex cinerea. Legend. Ben (talk) 13:40, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

@Ben Stone: Thank you so much. I had made the typo "Ausralian" in something I was writing, then as I often do, I looked to see if anyone else had made that typo in Wikipedia. I found it in Atriplex cinerea and did some other copy editing while I was there. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  02:57, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

accidental duplication

Not sure how but I accidentally duplicated [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptarthus_brevirostris this page.I merged the content.Now the duplicate has to go.Would you be so good as to fix this for me.Very best regards Notafly (talk) 13:47, 1 June 2020 (UTC) PS It showed as a red link here List of soldierflies and allies of Great Britain.

@Notafly: I resolved it I think. It's a common misspelling I found on line. Leptarthus vs. Leptarthrus. So now Leptarthus brevirostris redirects to Leptarthrus brevirostris. I also fixed the misspelling at List of soldierflies and allies of Great Britain. Glad to help. SchreiberBike | ⌨  18:35, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

Very many thanks.Would you also redirect Dioctria baumhaueri to Dioctria hyalipennis please. I will soon address the issues raised on that page now partially mergedNotafly (talk) 20:27, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

@Notafly: Fixed. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  22:06, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

Thank you again.As always warm regards Notafly (talk) 18:20, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

May 2020 Tree of Life Newsletter

May 2020—Issue 014

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Lythronax by FunkMonk, Lythronaxargestes and IJReid Meerkat by Sainsf, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Borchgrevinkium by Super Dromaeosaurus, reviewed by Amitchell125 Nakalipithecus by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Gog the Mild Scanisaurus by Ichthyovenator, reviewed by Gog the Mild Sand cat by BhagyaMani, reviewed by Aven13 Pigs in culture by Chiswick Chap, reviewed by Sainsf Sun bear by Sainsf, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Megacephalosaurus by Macrophyseter, reviewed by Aven13 Cinnamon red bat by Enwebb, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Banteng by Sainsf, reviewed by Chiswick Chap Cartorhynchus by Lythronaxargestes, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Black-footed cat by BhagyaMani, reviewed by Amitchell125 Homo ergaster by Ichthyovenator, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Black coral by Aven13, reviewed by Sainsf Heuglin's gazelle by Sainsf, reviewed by The Rambling Man Australopithecus garhi by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Hog Farm Chororapithecus by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by IJReid Ornithocheiromorpha by JurassicClassic767, reviewed by IJReid

Newly nominated content

Gigantorhynchus by Mattximus Leech by LittleJerry, Chiswick Chap and Cwmhiraeth List of mephitids by PesN Sand cat by BhagyaMani Cinnamon red bat by Enwebb Kristianstad Basin by Ichthyovenator Nakalipithecus by Dunkleosteus77 Scanisaurus by Ichthyovenator Sun bear by Sainsf Heuglin's gazelle by Sainsf Black coral by Aven13 Australopithecus garhi by Dunkleosteus77 Chororapithecus by Dunkleosteus77 Northern crested newt by Tylototriton Megacephalosaurus by Macrophyseter Banteng by Sainsf Cartorhynchus by Lythronaxargestes Ornithocheiromorpha by JurassicClassic767 Black-footed cat by BhagyaMani Bat virome by Enwebb Echinodon by IJReid Homo ergaster by Ichthyovenator Dwarf dog-faced bat by Enwebb Doedicurus by Dunkleosteus77 Zebra by LittleJerry

News at a glance

• This month saw two Tree of Life editors gain the mop: CaptainEek (WikiProjects Birds and Plants) and Cwmhiraeth (familiar name at DYK, WikiProjects Plants, Animals, and Insects)
• The April – May GAN backlog drive finished up, clearing the queue from nearly 700 outstanding nominations to about 350.

Interview with Jts1882

This month we're joined by Jts1882, who is active in depicting evolutionary relationship of taxa via cladograms. Part of this includes responding to cladogram requests, where interested editors can have cladograms made without using the templates themselves.

How did you come to be interested in systematics? Are you interested in systematics broadly, or is there a particular group you're most fond of?

As long as I can remember I’ve been interested in nature, starting with the animals and plants in the garden, school grounds, and local wood, and then more general wildlife worldwide. An interest in how things are classified grew from this. I like things to be organised and understanding the relationships between things and systems (not just living things) is a big part of that. Biology was always my favourite subject in school and took up a disproportionate part of my time. My interest in systematics is broad as I’d like to comprehend the whole tree of life, but the cat family is my favourite group.

What's the background behind cladogram requests? I see that it isn't a very old part of the Tree of Life

Well I can’t take any credit for the cladogram requests page, although I help out there sometimes. It was created by IJReid and there are several people who have helped there more than me. I think the motivation is that creating cladograms requires a knowledge of the templates that is daunting for many editors. It was one way of helping people who want to focus on content creation.

My main contribution to the cladograms is converting the {{clade}} template to use a Lua module. The template code was extremely difficult to follow and had to be repetitive (I can only admire the efforts of those who got the thing to work in the first place). The conversion to Lua made it more efficient, allowed larger and deeper cladograms, plus facilitating the introduction of new features. The cladogram request page was recently the venue for discussion on making time calibrated cladograms, which is now possible, if not particularly user friendly.

What advice do you have for an editor who wants to learn how to make cladograms?

The same advice I would give to someone facing any computer problem, just try it out. Start by taking existing code for a cladogram and make changes yourself. The main advice would be to format it properly so indents match the brackets vertically. Of course, not everyone wants to learn and if someone prefers to focus on article content there is the cladogram request page.

Examples of cladograms Jts1882 has created, showing different proposed clades for Neoaves

Jarvis et al (2014)	Prum et al (2015)	Suh (2016) — a hard polytomy
Columbea Mirandornithes (flamingos, grebes) Columbimorphae (pigeons, mesites, sandgrouse) Passerea Otidae Otidimorphae (cuckoos, bustards, turacos) Strisores (hummingbirds, swifts, nightbirds) Gruae Opisthocomiformes (hoatzin) Gruimorphae Gruiformes (cranes, rails) Charadriiformes (shorebirds) Ardeae Aequornithes (core waterbirds) Eurypgimorphae (sunbittern, kagu, tropicbirds) Telluraves Afroaves Australaves (core landbirds)	Strisores (hummingbirds, swifts, nightbirds) Columbaves Columbimorphae (pigeons, mesites, sandgrouse) Otidimorphae (cuckoos, bustards, turacos) Gruiformes (cranes, rails) Aequorlitornithes Charadriiformes (shorebirds) Mirandornithes(flamingoes, grebes) Ardeae Aequornithes (core waterbirds) Eurypgimorphae (sunbittern, kagu, tropicbirds) (waterbirds) Inopinaves Opisthocomiformes (hoatzin) Telluraves Afroaves Australaves (core landbirds)	Columbimorphae (pigeons, mesites, sandgrouse) Otidimorphae (cuckoos, bustards, turacos) Strisores (hummingbirds, swifts, nightbirds) Opisthocomiformes (hoatzin) Gruiformes (cranes, rails) Charadriiformes (shorebirds) Mirandornithes (flamingoes, grebes) Ardeae Aequornithes (core waterbirds) Eurypgimorphae (sunbittern, kagu, tropicbirds) Telluraves Afroaves Australaves (core landbirds)

Do you have any personal projects or goals you're working towards on Wikipedia?

As I said I like organisation and systems. So I find efforts like the automated taxobox system and {{taxonbar}} appealing. I would like to see more reuse of the major phylogenetic trees on Wikipedia with more use of consensus trees on the higher taxa. Too often they get edited based on one recent report and/or without proper citation. Animals and bilateria are examples where this is a problem.

Towards this I have been working on a system of phylogeny templates that can be reused flexibly. The {{Clade transclude}} template allows selective transclusion, so the phylogenetic trees on one page can be reused with modifications, i.e. can be pruned and grafted, used with or without images, with or without collapsible elements, etc. I have an example for the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification (see {{Phylogeny/APG IV}}) and one for squamates that also includes collapsible elements (see {{Phylogeny/Squamata}}).

A second project is to have a modular reference system for taxonomic resources. I have made some progress along this lines with the {{BioRef}} template. This started off simply as a way of hardlinking to Catalog of Fishes pages and I’ve gradually expanded it to cover other groups (e..g. FishBase, AmphibiaWeb and Amphibian Species of the World, Reptile Database, the Mammalian Diversity Database). The modular nature is still rudimentary and needs a rewrite before it is ready for wider use.

What would surprise your fellow editors to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?

I don’t think there is anything particularly surprising or interesting about my life. I’ve had an academic career as a research scientist but I don't think anyone could guess the area from my Wikipedia edits. I prefer to work on areas where I am learning at the same time. This why I spend more time with neglected topics (e.g. mosses at the moment). I start reading and then find that I’m not getting the information I want.

Anything else you'd like us to know?

My interest in the classification of things goes beyond biology. I am fascinated by mediaeval attempts to classify knowledge, such as Bacon in his The Advancement of Learning and Diderot and d’Alembert in their Encyclopédie. They were trying to come up with a universal scheme of knowledge just as the printing press was allowing greater dissemination of knowledge.

With the internet we are seeing a new revolution in knowledge dissemination. Just look at how we could read research papers on the COVID virus within weeks of its discovery. With an open internet, everyone has access, not just those with the luxury of books at home or good libraries. Sites like the Biodiversity Heritage Library allow you to read old scientific works without having to visit dusty university library stack rooms, while the taxonomic and checklist databases provide instant information on millions of living species. In principle, the whole world can now find out about anything, even if Douglas Adams warned we might be disinclined to do so.

This is why I like Wikipedia, with all its warts, it’s a means of organising the knowledge on the internet. In just two decades it’s become a first stop for knowledge and hopefully a gateway to more specialised sources. Perhaps developing this latter aspect, beyond providing good sources for what we say, is the next challenge for Wikipedia.

May DYKs

Slender Scotch burnet moth on a flower

Northern plains gray langur

Male vermilion flycatcher

Canada lynx

Meerkats

Hilarimorphites burmanica

Sun bear

• ... that coconut mites can be dispersed by wind, or perhaps by hitching a lift? (1 May)
• ... that Neanderthals went fishing? (1 May)
• ... that the Rowridge Valley in the Isle of Wight is the only known location for the wood calamint in Britain? (1 May)
• ... that Tetraponera penzigi is one of several species of ant that protect whistling thorn trees in East Africa from grazing giraffes and rhinoceroses? (3 May)
• ... that the Vietnam mouse-deer, which had been feared to have gone extinct nearly 30 years ago, was sighted again in 2019? (4 May)
• ... that most branchiobdellids use crayfish as hosts, living on their heads, carapaces, or claws, but in some instances inside their gill cavities? (5 May)
• ... that the song of the Madagascan hoopoe differs markedly from that of the African hoopoe? (5 May)
• ... that populations of the slender Scotch burnet (pictured), a European moth that lives in dry, lime-rich areas, have been declining? (6 May)
• ... that the spinosaurid dinosaur Ichthyovenator had two sails on its back? (9 May)
• ... that the scale insect Saissetia coffeae attacks many other plants besides coffee? (9 May)
• ... that entomologist Frederick Vincent Theobald wrote a five-volume monograph and sixty scientific papers on mosquitoes? (12 May)
• ... that the northern plains gray langur monkey (example pictured) is killed in India for food and to prevent crop raiding, despite being considered sacred by Hindus? (12 May)
• ... that the leech Limnatis nilotica can affect humans and livestock, entering hosts through the mouth, nose, or other orifices? (12 May)
• ... that while the termite Pterotermes occidentis inhabits dead blue palo verde in the Sonoran Desert, Marginitermes hubbardi prefers dead saguaro? (14 May)
• ... that the tree Barteria fistulosa is associated with Tetraponera aethiops, an aggressive species of ant that lives in its hollow branches and twigs? (15 May)
• ... that Miller's langur, one of the rarest primates in Borneo, was feared to be extinct until a 2012 study rediscovered it in an area where it was previously unknown? (16 May)
• ... that most of the known Gigantopithecus fossils are of teeth because the other bones are likely to have been eaten by porcupines? (17 May)
• ... that Tetraponera tessmanni, a very aggressive ant, is able to establish dominance over the whole of the liana in which it lives, which may be 50 m (164 ft) long? (17 May)
• ... that mesophyletid weevils have only been found in Burmese amber? (18 May)
• ... that Pyrocephalus, the genus name of the vermilion flycatcher (example pictured), literally means 'fire head'? (19 May)
• ... that the male bigtooth cardinalfish broods a ball of eggs in his mouth? (20 May)
• ... that in the Australian Journal of Herpetology, a first-year student and a high school teacher reassessed the taxonomy of Australia's entire reptile class, naming 33 novel genera and 214 new species? (20 May)
• ... that the Arizona dampwood termite exclusively colonizes dead parts of standing trees? (22 May)
• ... that Megaceroides algericus is one of only two deer species known to have been native to Africa, alongside the Barbary stag? (23 May)
• ... that besides eating ants and termites, the waved woodpecker feeds on fruits, berries, and seeds? (24 May)
• ... that populations of the Canada lynx (pictured) undergo cyclic rises and falls in line with those of the snowshoe hare? (25 May)
• ... that despite being known as the Mexican hydrangea, Clerodendrum bungei is neither from Mexico nor a species of hydrangea? (25 May)
• ... that meerkats (examples pictured) use alarm calls that can identify the type of predator posing the risk, the level of danger, and the caller itself? (27 May)
• ... that the frog Boophis fayi can be identified by its unusual green-and-turquoise eyes? (30 May)
• ... that members of the fly family Apystomyiidae (example depicted) have been found in Late Jurassic sediments in Kazakhstan? (30 May)
• ... that the sun bear (pictured) is the smallest of all bear species? (31 May)

Discuss this issue

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Enwebb (talk) 19:40, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

wrong move

Wikipedia:Atylotus plebeius No idea what I did but this should be Atylotus plebeius.Sorry I didn't ask Notafly (talk) 19:58, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

I've been away from the internet for a couple of days, but I'll take a look at this soon. SchreiberBike | ⌨  00:50, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

@Notafly: If you put "{{Db-g7}}" on that page, it will be deleted. That's for "Author requests deletion". Also explain that it was an error in your edit summary. Hope that helps. SchreiberBike | ⌨  02:49, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

Monotypic genera

Hi SchreiberBike, the example "The genus Nodocephalosaurus has a redirect from its sole species, Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis." at the guidelines would suggest that Hypocephalus_armatus should be at the genus. Shyamal (talk) 03:21, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@Shyamal: Nodocephalosaurus is the more typical case where the article is under the genus name for a monotypic genus, but when the genus name needs to be disambiguated, as a hypocephalus is an Egyptian funerary item, we put the article under the species name. The bottom of the guideline says "The exception is when a monotypic genus name needs to be disambiguated. The article should then be at the species, since this is a more natural form of disambiguation." That means that rather than call the article Hypocephalus (genus), we call it Hypocephalus armatus. Does that make sense to you? If I'd been around when that decision was made, I would have argued to do it differently, but it has worked for a long time and I don't see a need for change. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:42, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Ah ok, got it, thanks. Perhaps an example should be included so that folks like me get it more easily. I saw that Plantdrew also did something similar saying "Use natural disambiguation". Shyamal (talk) 03:59, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

draft

This began as a stub. It was almost immediately removed and retitled as a draft itself then retitled thus Draft:Eduard Enslin]. Now a review with a seven week wait is requested. I see no reason for this. Do you? Notafly (talk) 20:45, 8 July 2020 (UTC) I see you are helping Ettore (Hectonichus). Prolific isn't he.Very best regards Robert aka Notafly (talk) 20:45, 8 July 2020 (UTC) NB Fixed now He is here Eduard Enslin again

I saw that it was fixed and I did some copy editing on it. Looks good. SchreiberBike | ⌨  22:21, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

And very useful additions too.Many thanks.Between us all we are making good progress.Very best regards Notafly (talk) 20:14, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Standards for zoological author names

Hi, in the absence of a list like the IPNI for zoological scientific names, there's always an issue as to how to present the names of authors. For spiders, we've always followed the usage of the World Spider Catalog, which is the source for spider names and taxonomy. Peter coxhead (talk) 08:20, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: Ok. I'll follow that for spiders (and go back and fix anything I've done beyond the two I saw that you caught). There are four people surnamed Lucas who have described Lepidoptera and I was casting my net widely, but I'll narrow my efforts. Thanks, SchreiberBike | ⌨  15:57, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

June/July 2020 Tree of Life Newsletter

June and July 2020—Issue 015

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Canada lynx by Sainsf Gigantorhynchus by Mattximus Leech by LittleJerry, Chiswick Chap and Cwmhiraeth Orangutan by LittleJerry Secretarybird by LittleJerry, Aa77zz and Casliber Vermilion flycatcher by CaptainEek Bat virome by Enwebb, reviewed by Chidgk1 Doedicurus by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Hog Farm Dwarf dog-faced bat by Enwebb, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77 Echinodon by IJReid, reviewed by JurassicClassic767 Edvard August Vainio by Esculenta, reviewed by ChiswickCahp Hammer-headed bat by Enwebb, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Homo rudolfensis by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by JurassicClassic767 Nina Demme by SusunW, reviewed by Enwebb Northern crested newt by Tylototriton, reviewed by Enwebb Pterodactylus by JurassicClassic767, reviewed by ChiswickCahp Zebra by LittleJerry, reviewed by Dunkleosteus77

Newly nominated content

Horseshoe bat by Enwebb Siamosaurus by PaleoGeekSquared Zebra by LittleJerry Australopithecus afarensis by Dunkleosteus77 Australopithecus africanus by Dunkleosteus77 Australopithecus bahrelghazali by Dunkleosteus77 Australopithecus deyiremeda by Dunkleosteus77 Australopithecus sediba by Dunkleosteus77 Bonelli's eagle by Sandhillcrane Great flying fox by Enwebb Homo habilis by Dunkleosteus77 Markham's storm petrel by Therapyisgood Ornithocheiridae by JurassicClassic767 Paranthropus aethiopicus by Dunkleosteus77 Paranthropus boisei by Dunkleosteus77 Paranthropus robustus by Dunkleosteus77 Tatenectes by Slate Weasel

News at a glance

• This issue is a double issue, but the plan is to return to monthly henceforth.
• A discussion at WikiProject Palaeontology about internal peer review processes led to the creation of a peer review space. In contrast to the more formal Peer Review, PalaeoPR focuses on short "fact checks", emphasizing content over style. Reviews are meant to be low commitment, with "drive-by reviews" encouraged. Since its inception on 8 July, seven articles have been submitted to PalaeoPR.
• After a highly competitive third round, two Tree of Life editors advanced to the fourth round of the WikiCup: Dunkleosteus77 and Sainsf
• A February 2020 paper published in PLOS noted that Mammalian Species is one of the most over-cited journals on Wikipedia relative to how frequently it is cited in other academic works.

Categorizing life with DexDor

DexDor is a WikiGnome with a particular interest in article categorization, including how organisms are categorized.

How did you become interested in editing biodiversity topics on Wikipedia?

I'm a wikignome who tries to remove unnecessary complexity and confusion in Wikipedia.  I specialise in categorization. I've worked on categorization of several topic areas (e.g. military equipment) - anywhere where I see things like category tags on articles that the category text doesn't support.  Categorization of organisms is one area I'm currently looking at (my essay on this).

You seem to be particularly interested in geographic categorization of organisms. What are some issues in this area?

One issue is that there are several possible relationships between an organism and a region (i.e. what the "of" in a "Xs of Y" means) - the organism may be found throughout the region, somewhere in the region, only in the region (i.e. endemic to that region) - there are categories for each of these (and others) and some categories have been unclear about their exact meaning. Then there's introductions by man, locally extinct species, occasional visitors...

Another issue is that some editors have thought it's appropriate to create categories for very small areas ("Spiders of Vatican City" is only a slight exaggeration) and put a few articles in them, thus creating a category that is both massively incomplete and non-defining for the articles in it.

There have been several (now blocked) editors who have been disruptive in this area, but a confusing and sprawling categorization scheme is also partly due to editors from a particular background categorizing a particular article in a way that appears to make sense, but doesn't really make sense in the wider categorization scheme - for example, if an article mentions the countries at the extremes of an animal's distribution, the animal is categorized just for those countries.

What potential solutions do you see for categorizing organisms by geography? How can other editors help address this issue, or at least, not make it worse?

We should have some guidelines that tell editors how to categorize any article about an organism (including any geographical categorization). I've started drafting guidelines at User:DexDor/BioCat. The guidelines are also a good way to ensure that the categorization of articles about organisms is aligned with categorization of other articles and may help us to identify where there are problems, inconsistencies etc in the categorization. I welcome suggestions for improvement of the guidelines (which should at some point be moved into WP:TOL).

Regarding geographical categorization of animals the main advice for editors would be to not create categories for any new areas and to only create a new category if you intend to populate it.

What have you learned from being a Wikipedia editor?

That lots of people (from varied backgrounds) each making (mostly) small improvements (like ants in an ants nest?) and only understanding some parts of Wikipedia can produce such a wonderful resource. But also, how that tends to result in ever-increasing complexity which negatively affects editors and readers.

Is there anything about your life outside Wikipedia that would surprise us?

Not sure - I'm a member of a band.

June DYKs

Blue calamintha bee

Culture of S. aureus

Ambay pumpwood

Heuglin's gazelle

Gold-striped frog

• ... that despite being a member of the cat family, the jaguarundi has several features in common with mustelids such as otters and weasels? (2 June)
• ... that scientists were unsure whether the blue calamintha bee (pictured) still existed until it was observed again in March 2020? (2 June)
• ... that many of the animals regarded as pests have co-evolved with humans, adapting to the warm, sheltered conditions that a building provides? (3 June)
• ... that the banteng is the second endangered species to be successfully cloned, and the first clone to survive beyond infancy? (5 June)
• ... that the colonial morphology of Staphylococcus species (culture pictured) is described as "creamy"? (5 June)
• ... that ant gardens are cultivated by several species of ant, including Crematogaster carinata? (6 June)
• ... that the presence of the beetle Coelomera ruficornis on its host tree (pictured) is tolerated by the ant Azteca alfari, but not by the ant Azteca muelleri? (8 June)
• ... that cattle and deer sometimes stand under trees where southern plains gray langurs are feeding in order to consume the edible pieces that the monkeys drop? (10 June)
• ... that Singaporean authorities hope that the Mandai Wildlife Bridge will reduce the risk of animals such as Sunda pangolins and leopard cats becoming roadkill? (13 June)
• ... that the gold-striped frog (pictured) sometimes breeds inside an active nest of leafcutter ants? (13 June)
• ... that Heuglin's gazelle (illustrated), reportedly last seen in Eritrea over a century earlier during Italian colonial rule, was sighted again in the country last year? (12 June)
• ... that Siamosaurus, a large bipedal carnivore from the Early Cretaceous of Thailand, is the first crocodilian-like dinosaur named from Asia? (14 June)
• ... that Homo ergaster may have been the first species of archaic humans to control fire? (14 June)
• ... that the small frog Cochranella nola has yellow intestines, a green tongue, and dark green bones? (16 June)
• ... that Nigel, nicknamed "the world's loneliest gannet" (species pictured), attempted to mate with a concrete decoy bird on Mana Island, New Zealand? (17 June)
• ... that the male giant glass frog has a hooked spur on his upper arm which is used when fighting rivals? (19 June)
• ... that vestigial organs in the Brazilian Callichirus major population (example species pictured) suggest Callichirus may be the only crustacean genus with basal, yet not universal, hermaphroditism? (20 June)
• ... that Megacephalosaurus was one of the last known pliosaurs and coexisted with some of the earliest mosasaurs? (21 June)
• ... that when boiled in milk, black coral (example pictured) emits a faint scent of myrrh? (21 June)
• ... that one of the factors affecting the future of the Huanchaca mouse is the increased cultivation of biofuels? (22 June)
• ... that the Strawberries and Cream Tree (pictured) is noted for producing pink blossoms on one side of the tree and white on the other, when it blooms every spring? (23 June)
• ... that the Chilean seaside cinclodes bobs its tail while it walks and flares its wings while it sings? (24 June)
• ... that Boie's frog (pictured) and the Banhado frog both resemble dead leaves on the floor of the forest? (25 June)
• ... that the extinct sumac species Rhus republicensis is named for Republic, Washington? (30 June)

• 
  Australasian gannet
• 
  C. brasiliensis, a species
  in the C. major complex
• 
  Deep-sea Antipathes dendrochristos
• 
  Strawberries and Cream Tree
  in full bloom in April 2020
• 
  Boie's frog

July DYKs

Amazon parrot

Life reconstruction of Pterodactylus antiquus

• ... that the Newland Oak in Gloucestershire took "200 years to grow, 200 years to exist, and 200 to die"? (2 July)
• ... that the hollow trunk of Queen Elizabeth's Oak was used as a prison? (4 July)
• ... that Markham's storm petrel, which nests in Peru and northern Chile, has been described as "one of the least known seabirds in the world"? (7 July)
• ... that the Asian freshwater leech Barbronia weberi has invaded North Carolina? (11 July)
• ... that a large, elderly, "decently behaved" Russian brown bear once lived in the Leeds suburb of Headingley? (12 July)
• ... that the female Andes marsupial frog carries her developing young in a pouch on her back? (14 July)
• ... that the Amazon parrot (depicted) was implicated as a source of the great parrot fever pandemic of 1929–30, in which more than 100 people died? (17 July)
• ... that the frog Corythomantis greeningi retreats into a hole, blocks the entrance with its spiny head, and injects venom into anything that tries to dislodge it? (18 July)
• ... that the reef box crab uses its powerful pincers to break open the shells of snails? (21 July)
• ... that carnivorous wildlife of North Macedonia as small as the Balkan lynx have been reported to attack not just livestock, but humans too? (22 July)
• ... that the sea slug Discodoris boholiensis exhibits photokinesis? (22 July)
• ... that the genus Pterodactylus (species depicted), the scientific name for a pterodactyl, had been considered a "wastebasket taxon" as many species were assigned to it and later reassigned? (23 July)
• ... that the sea urchin Abatus cordatus broods its young for nine months in pockets on its upper surface? (24 July)
• ... that Harold Clyde Bingham trailed a troop of gorillas for 100 hours in 1929? (25 July)
• ... that the sea urchin Goniocidaris umbraculum moves its eggs with its tube feet, assisted by cilia, to an area near its mouth where they can be brooded? (27 July)

Discuss this issue

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Delivered on behalf of Enwebb (talk) 16:33, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

August 2020 Tree of Life Newsletter

September 2021—Issue 016

Tree of Life

Welcome to the Tree of Life newsletter!

Newly recognized content

Horseshoe bat by Enwebb Siamosaurus by PaleoGeekSquared Australopithecus sediba by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Jens Lallensack Homo habilis by Dunkleosteus77, reviewed by Enwebb Tatenectes by Slate Weasel, reviewed by FunkMonk

Newly nominated content

Black-and-red broadbill by AryKun Turtle by LittleJerry Symphyotrichum lateriflorum by Eewilson Dracophyllum fiordense by Dracophyllum Scarlet-and-white tanager by AryKun Viatkogorgon by FunkMonk Punctelia borreri by Esculenta Chivi vireo by AryKun Mountain kingfisher by AryKun Kererū by Ambrosia10

Hoax taxon sniffed out after nearly fifteen years

Cross posted from the Signpost

The jackalope, a close relative of Mustelodon

On August 7, WikiProject Palaeontology member Rextron discovered a suspicious taxon article, Mustelodon, which was created in November 2005. The article lacked references and the subsequent discussion on WikiProject Palaeontology found that the alleged type locality (where the fossil was first discovered) of Lago Nandarajo "near the northern border of Panama" was nonexistent. In fact, Panama does not even really have a northern border, as it is bounded along the north by the Caribbean Sea. No other publications or databases mentioned Mustelodon, save a fleeting mention in a 2019 book that presumably followed Wikipedia, Felines of the World.

The article also appeared in four other languages, Catalan, Spanish, Dutch, and Serbian. In Serbian Wikipedia, a note at the bottom of the page warned: "It is important to note here that there is no data on this genus in the official scientific literature, and all attached data on the genus Mustelodon on this page are taken from the English Wikipedia and are the only known data on this genus of mammals, so the validity of this genus is questionable."

Editors took action to alert our counterparts on other projects, and these versions were removed also. As the editor who reached out to Spanish and Catalan Wikipedia, it was somewhat challenging to navigate these mostly foreign languages (I have a limited grasp of Spanish). I doubted that the article had very many watchers, so I knew I had to find some WikiProjects where I could post a machine translation advising of the hoax, and asking that users follow local protocols to remove the article. I was surprised to find, however, that Catalan Wikipedia does not tag articles for WikiProjects on talk pages, meaning I had to fumble around to find what I needed (turns out that WikiProjects are Viquiprojectes in Catalan!) Mustelodon remains on Wikidata, where its "instance of" property was swapped from "taxon" to "fictional taxon".

How did this article have such a long lifespan? Early intervention is critical for removing hoaxes. A 2016 report found that a hoax article that survives its first day has an 18% chance of lasting a year. Additionally, hoax articles tend to have longer lifespans if they are in inconspicuous parts of Wikipedia, where they do not receive many views. Mustelodon was only viewed a couple times a day, on average.

Mustelodon survived a brush with death three years into its lifespan. The article was proposed for deletion in September 2008, with a deletion rationale of "No references given; cannot find any evidence in peer-reviewed journals that this alleged genus actually exists". Unfortunately, the proposed deletion was contested and the template removed, though the declining editor did not give a rationale. Upon its rediscovery in August 2020, Mustelodon was tagged for speedy deletion under CSD G3 as a "blatant hoax". This was challenged, and an Articles for Deletion discussion followed. On 12 August, the AfD was closed as a SNOW delete. WikiProject Palaeontology members ensured that any trace of it was scrubbed from legitimate articles. The fictional mammal was finally, truly extinct.

At the ripe old age of 14 years, 9 months, this is the longest-lived documented hoax on Wikipedia, topping the previous documented record of 14 years, 5 months, set by The Gates of Saturn, a fictitious television show, which was incidentally also discovered in August 2020. How do we discover other hoax taxa? Could we use Wikidata to discover taxa are not linked to databases like ITIS, Fossilworks, and others?

Spotlight with Mattximus

Apororhynchus hemignathi, a spiny-headed worm with the distinction of being one of the first named animal taxa when organized alphabetically

This month's spotlight is with Mattximus, author of two Featured Articles and 29 Featured Lists at current count.

How did you become involved with editing biodiversity articles?

I think I have a compulsion to make lists, it doesn't show up in my real life, but online I secretly get a lot of satisfaction making orderly lists and tables. It's a bit of a secret of mine, because it doesn't manifest in any other part of my life. My background is in biology, so this was a natural (haha) fit.

You have an impressive number of FAs under your belt. Two of your more recent ones, Apororhynchus and Gigantorhynchus, are part of what you referred to as an "experiment". How did you choose these articles, and what's next for you in this experiment?

This experiment was just to see if I could get any random article to FA status, so I picked the very first alphabetical animal species according to the taxonomy and made that attempt. Technically, there isn't enough information for a species page so I just merged the species into a genus and went from there. It was a fun exercise, but doing it alone is not the most fun so it's probably on pause for the foreseeable future.

Note: Aporhynchus is the first alphabetical taxon as follows: Animalia, Acanthocephala, Archiacanthocephala, Apororhynchida, Apororhynchidae, Apororhynchus

What advice would you give to someone who wants to nominate their first FAC?

I would recommend getting a good article nominated, then a featured list up before tackling the FA. Lists are a bit more forgiving but give you a taste of what standards to expect from FA. The most time consuming thing is proper citations so make sure that is in order before starting either.

Is there anything that would surprise us to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?

My personality in real life does not match my wikipedia persona. I'm not a very organized, or orderly in real life, but the wikipedia pages I brought to FL or FA are all very organized. Maybe it's my outlet for a more free-flowing life as a scientist/teacher.

Anything else you'd like us to know?

The fact that wikipedia exists free of profit motive and free for everyone really is something special and I encourage everyone to donate a few dollars to the cause.

August DYKs

Woolly thistle

Life reconstruction of Ankylorhiza tiedemani

Female cicada laying eggs

Acampe rigida

• ... that in the Brazilian state of Bahia, cerrado mice are often caught by barn owls, but seldom by researchers? (1 August)
• ... that ornithologist Corina Newsome and herpetologist Earyn McGee held events as part of the inaugural Black Birders Week, an effort to highlight the challenges faced by Black nature enthusiasts? (5 August)
• ... that the flower buds of the woolly thistle (pictured) can be eaten in a similar way to artichokes? (8 August)
• ... that the French peanut is native to Brazil? (10 August)
• ... that the 800-year-old Minchenden Oak is one of the oldest trees in London? (14 August)
• ... that the forward-facing incisors of the extinct dolphin Ankylorhiza (restoration pictured) may have been used for ramming their prey, similar to a hunting method used by modern orcas? (16 August)
• ... that scientists accidentally created a hybrid of two endangered fish species, called the sturddlefish? (17 August)
• ... that despite having the widest distribution in the United States, the arid-land subterranean termite causes less structural damage than other members of its genus? (19 August)
• ... that the Eocene leaf species Tetracentron hopkinsii was not confirmed from Washington state until 2018? (19 August)
• ... that Helen Ballard was a hellebore horticulturist? (22 August)
• ... that in 2021, the dwarf periodical cicada (pictured) is due to emerge in parts of eastern North America, not having been seen for 17 years? (24 August)
• ... that the fossil sumac Rhus boothillensis is named for a public fossil digging site in Republic, Washington? (25 August)
• ... that the orchid Acampe rigida (pictured) is pollinated by raindrops? (28 August)
• ... that fossils identified as Pentacentron sternhartae may actually be the fruits of another fossil species? (29 August)
• ... that American naturalist William Harvey Brown, who went to Africa to collect specimens, ended up fighting in two wars there? (30 August)
• ... that the rosy spindle cowry, a species of sea snail, lives exclusively on gorgonians? (30 August)

Discuss this issue

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Delivered on behalf of Enwebb (talk) 17:10, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Endorsements

Please stop adding social media endorsements. Thank you. Lima Bean Farmer (talk) 01:52, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Hi @Lima Bean Farmer: I don't make a habit of adding such endorsements, but I often revert edits which remove content without explanation. I notice that you typically don't leave edit summaries. Please do! That's part of how we collaborate in building the encyclopedia. Without edit summaries it's hard to know if an edit improves the encyclopedia or if it's vandalism. Better yet if your edit summary links to the guideline you are following such as WP:ENDORSE. I wish you well as you work in controversial areas of Wikipedia and you should know that I'm a big fan of lima beans. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:41, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank you! I will try to make sure I add more edit summaries. I often just put something like “Twitter” or “Social media” endorsements and if people have questions I will answer them. My apologies, I most certainly am not committing vandalism. As a big fan of lima beans, you may be able to tell where I am from if I told you it’s the Lima bean capital of the world!Lima Bean Farmer (talk) 03:53, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

A bowl of strawberries to you!

Hi, thanks for correcting my page Noble Consort Cheng. Deidonata (talk)20:24,27.09.2020 (UTC)

@Deidonata: Thank you. That is so kind. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  00:22, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

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Adding the tiger and yak into the List of mammals of North America

Hi and good afternoon SchreiberBike, as you see i tried everything to provide a strong reliable source for the tiger and the yak to prove their former presence in North America but it looks like i failed. I am truly sorry for adding these two species. I should know by now that tigers and yaks were never present in North America vice versa. If and only i had found actual reliable sources for the yak and tiger that will demonstrate that they were in North America for 13,000 to 10,000 years, i would let them remain on the list because the source would make total sense. Unfortunately, i could not find a strong wealthy sources. That is all could say. Sincerely. Animalworlds314 (talk) 18:00, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

@Animalworlds314: I'm sorry I missed your note above. I try to imagine what the reader is expecting on a page and in this case, I don't expect that they are interested in prehistoric creatures. Thanks and keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  22:37, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Seven years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:20, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Thank you Gerda! SchreiberBike | ⌨  22:28, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Rewriting?

Hello. I'm helping with a contributor copyright investigation, and many of the articles are about Lepidoptera. I was wondering if you'd be interested in rewriting articles which contain (or are, in their entirety) copyright violations. An example is Artifodina strigulata, of which over 2/3 is a copyright violation. Others, such as Platyptilia isodactylus, may not require such complete revision, but will benefit from an eye for detail and familiarity with the subject area; I immediately thought of you. Cheers, BlackcurrantTea (talk) 07:54, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Aubrey Koch

What was the point in changing all those headlines to lower case? As they were they reflected exactly the newspaper headline.Lexysexy (talk) 00:49, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

@Lexysexy: It's standard Wikipedia style. See MOS:ALLCAPS, where it says "Reduce newspaper headlines and other titles from all caps to title case – or to sentence case if required by the citation style established in the article. For example, replace the headline or title "WAR BEGINS TODAY" with "War Begins Today" or, if necessary, "War begins today"." Does that make sense to you? Thanks, SchreiberBike | ⌨  01:44, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for that, Schreib. My interprtation is that MOS says "This section is about using all caps in articles." I interpreted references as being external to "articles". I'll take advice, though, but it seems to me that a reference should reflect the original. Cheers.Lexysexy (talk) 06:57, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

Megalodon?

Is it really lowercase there? To me it looks like it should be capitalised. Ddum5347 (talk) 03:38, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Yep, that's its common name. It's lower case throughout the article. I'm following MOS:LIFE. SchreiberBike | ⌨  03:42, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Really? Wow, interesting. It's sort of like "boa constrictor" being both the common name and latin name. Thanks for enlightening me. Ddum5347 (talk) 03:44, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Macedonian Wars (lede)

You made a general statement about "Historians" instead of specific to the authors who hold certain views (way back when) - I'll be correcting this with alternative viewpoints soon. One source alone does not a general consensus in our discipline make. Just FYI. 104.169.22.74 (talk) 08:44, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

The only edit I've made to Macedonian Wars was to disambiguate links to the disambiguation page Macedonia. I think you may be thinking of someone else. Thanks and keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  15:28, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Flamenco

Hi, hope you are well. The reason I got rid of that edit which was introduced in July is that it seems to push a narrative contrary to academic consensus and impose it on the lead. Let me know what you think. I can open an account if you like so we can discuss further. 88.5.205.1 (talk) 21:15, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

Here is my new Username. You can talk to me here or directly on the talk page of the relevant article since I have opened a discussion on the controversial edit. Cristodelosgitanos (talk) 21:22, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Cristodelosgitanos:. Getting a username generally makes you more credible, so thank you for that and welcome to Wikipedia. Also, I and many others are inclined to give less thought to reverting unexplained edits, so I appreciate you explaining why the changes were made. I know nothing about flamenco, so I don't have an opinion about the content. I mostly noticed that it was an IP editor making changes without explanation and undoing some grammar and style changes that made sense to me. I will look over the article again and reinstate some of those grammar/style changes. Keep up the good work and if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know. SchreiberBike | ⌨  23:28, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

Jewelers/jeweler's

Hi! Concerning this change: [[2]]. You said it's not a possessive, but it is. jeweller's is short for jeweller's shop (jeweller is British, whereas jeweler is American, but that's irrelevant here), just as baker's is short for baker's shop, grocer's for grocer's shop, dry cleaner's for dry cleaner's shop, etc. It might look weird, but it's true. Someone else has changed it to jewellery store now, which is also fine. All the best —caoimhinoc (talk) 21:09, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

@Caoimhin ceallach: Sorry for the delay. It looks wrong to my eye with the possessive, but your links to Wiktionary show that my eye is in the wrong. I don't feel strongly about it and I agree that the subsequent change to "jewellery store" is an improvement. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  16:49, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

List of University of Pennsylvania

Thanks for educating me and helping me retain a person on List, Bruce Marks, whom I believe is important due to unique way he became a Pennsylvania State Senator. I find it helpful to see on the list the connection to the List. In this case the List is University of Pennsylvania. Since this list concerns University of Pennsylvania, why not identify the year the person was due to graduate and if that person earned a degree. For example, President William Henry Harrison is an alumnus of University of Pennsylvania, Department of Medicine Class of 1795, BUT he only spent a single semester at Penn (in fall of 1791. See https://www.thedp.com/article/2017/01/william-henry-harrison-history ). I think it's important on quick glance to realize how tenuous that person's connection to University in question. Hence, I think adding the year the person affiliated with Penn (or any university) was due to graduate and if that person earned a degree is important information and see that on this and many similar lists it is is often provided. I agree that providing such should be consistent and it is often not consistent. I would rather future Wikipedia editors of all Lists of alumni of colleges add this information of year due to graduate band if they earned a degree. I see on some lists they do provide such info and in some they do not. It's helpful to aspire to add this info. I thank you in advance if you have time to reply to my post. You have literally made over a 100 times more edits than me so I know I will learn from you and that you are more knowledgeable about Wikipedia than me. Thanks again for taking the time to care. OneMoreByte (talk) 09:30, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi @OneMoreByte: I understand your points above, but they differ from the consensus for Wikipedia lists in general and List of University of Pennsylvania people in particular. That list, near the top in the hidden text says "Use a short one-line description of notability (no period)." That is common for Wikipedia lists in order to keep them from becoming unwieldy; people can always click on the link for more information. The list above is already over 300KB which causes issues described at WP:LENGTH. You might propose changing the consensus for this list by discussing that at Talk:List of University of Pennsylvania people. I imagine that would involve cutting the list into multiple smaller lists while adding more detail for each person. Also, another editor (@JohnFromPinckney:) is objecting specifically to inclusion of Bruce Marks. I disagree with their objection, but the case for including Marks is stronger when Marks' entry is similar to the others on the list. I hope that helps and if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know. SchreiberBike | ⌨  17:31, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for prompt, thorough, and thoughtful reply. Indeed, I will follow through with your suggestions and

(1) go through the Penn talk page [Talk:List of University of Pennsylvania people] and suggest list continue to be broken up due to WP:LENGTH considerations (as was done when Faculty was made a separate list; and

(2) ask that the additional info of class year and whether they graduated be added as such does not add many kbs and provides great info.

Thanks also for alerting me to John from Pinckney (from whom I have learned a lot) focus on Marks and need to placate him in order for Marks not to be reverted. OneMoreByte (talk) 18:38, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Civil disobedience

Thanks for reverting my grammar correction: for some reason it didn't register with me that it was a quotation. Thanks for correcting my error! RomanSpa (talk) 21:37, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

@RomanSpa: Thank you and keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  22:31, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

wrong usage of Template:Fraction

FTFY Torzsmokus (talk) 12:17, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

@Torzsmokus: Yep, I screwed up there. Thank you. SchreiberBike | ⌨  16:16, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Diligence
	I'm impressed you noticed my mistake so quickly. Turns out I was wrong about hyphenated adverbs. I suppose I should read the rest of the MOS more closely. Kudos for being such an assiduous copyeditor. Anon423 (talk) 20:19, 3 September 2021 (UTC)

@Anon423: Thank you. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  21:57, 3 September 2021 (UTC)

Apologies

Apologies for not following the rules on redirecting and deleting a page. I am relatively new to Wikipedia so excuse my ignorance. J0ngM0ng (talk) 16:06, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

@J0ngM0ng: No problem. Wikipedia has so many rules that it's impossible for anyone to know them all. When in doubt, be bold and do what makes sense to you. If necessary others will correct you (hopefully in a kind way) and you can go on. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:57, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

A section copy edit request

Greetings,

Requesting some copy edit support @ newly added article section #2021 Minar-e-Pakistan mass sexual assault.

Thanks for the support

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 18:41, 19 September 2021 (UTC)

 Done @Bookku: See here. Why do you ask? I don't know of any interaction we've had before and I've never edited that article before. SchreiberBike | ⌨  05:58, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

Several

Hey! I noticed that you said the word "several" does not mean seven. I both agree and disagree. It's meaning seems to vary a lot no matter where it's used. A lot of the time I"ve seen several as meaning seven (hence the seve part of several), however I've also seen it meaning a lot of something which was why I undid the edit. I do agree that many would be better to use there and I replaced it with that. I would've changed it to that however I couldn't think of a better word that fit until you proposed many. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:44, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

@Blaze The Wolf: When I saw your edit summary "several means 7", I Googled the question and it's pretty clear that the "seve" at the beginning of both words is just a coincidence. Seven, the number, has Germanic roots and several comes from Latin. I see that there are others who have thought the same as you, but I think that's either confusion or humor. Keep up the good work. SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:51, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Oh interesting. Like I said I've always known several as meaning seven. DIdn't know it was just coincidence they sounded the same. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 20:33, 8 October 2021 (UTC)