Talk:Apoica flavissima

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This article was the subject of an educational assignment in Fall 2014. Further details were available on the "Education Program:Washington University in St. Louis/Behavioral Ecology (Fall 2014)" page, which is now unavailable on the wiki.

Feedback

As a part of this peer review, I noticed and corrected a few grammar and punctuation errors found throughout the article. I also included some internal links to pages that would detail the specific body part or behavior you described--especially when there was no description of this information within the article. I also linked the taxonomic groups you include in the text so that people interested in Vespidae, for example, are more likely to find your page. Also, I think that the Morphological Caste Differences section could be included under Description and identification to improve the flow of the information. Sydney Joyner (talk) 14:02, 29 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Peer Review

Overall, this article is very strong. I learned a lot about your species, and I liked the variety of sections that you had. I made small grammatical changes throughout, and I changed the wording in your diet section to make things more clear and concise. I also have a couple of additional suggestions. I think that your colony cycle section could use some clarification. I am unsure of what swamping means in this context. Additionally, I think that your kin selection section could benefit from a discussion on haplodiploidy sex determination, or if not a discussion, at least a mention and a link to the page. You mention relatedness many times so I think talking about sex determination will make understanding of this topic much stronger. Finally, I would take another look at your parasitism section. Do you mean to say "ingest their eggs?" If so, or if not, I think that this section could use some more explanation.

Again, a really good and interesting article! Great work! Kirinne (talk) 16:02, 30 September 2014 (UTC)Kirinne[reply]

Overall your article was very thorough and well written. There were several places where I thought that additional information or details would have been interesting and improved my overall understanding of your species. For example, under Description and Identification a sub section on sexual dimorphism between males and females (or different castes) would have been very informative. This is especially important with social species where physical differences often represent social difference. You did include a subsection on Morphological caste differences under Kin selection but I think this may fit better under Description and identification. Additionally, throughout the article you use metric units such as mm and Celcius. Wikipedia has some coding features that allows in text conversions to inches and Fahrenheit and I think would make some of the data more accessible for readers. I really enjoyed reading your article and I hope my feedback helps!Akinjenn (talk) 18:14, 19 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think your article is well-written and very strong. I enjoyed learning about the species. To your page, I added a link to the nocturnal Wikipedia page and two in-text images (mesoscutum and Trigonalidae). I have a clarification question for your page. If the workers remove multiple queens from the nest, who lays the eggs if workers have underdeveloped ovaries? Will the nest discontinue or do new queens invade the nest? Overall though, I think the article is done very well! Dkrinock (talk) 18:14, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A Few More Suggestions

I loved reading your article. It was incredibly informative on numerous fronts, and, in general, I found the species to be very interesting. I really enjoyed reading about their nocturnal nature, as I had never heard of a nocturnal wasp species before, and it was interesting to hear about how they behave in swarms during the night. I went ahead and rewrote a few sentences so that they would flow more effectively. The few changes that I am about to suggest are very minor. For instance, I believe that this article would benefit greatly from a section regarding importance to humans. It would be interesting to note if humans have any sort of connection to A. flavissima, given that they are primarily nocturnal. Also, you could remove some of the in-text citations after every sentence, especially if a single section is all from the same source (a very minor point). Finally, I believe that you could expand a little bit on the worker-queen conflict. For instance, what exactly is the relatedness between the queen and workers and how does this affect behavior (the average reader may not know this)? All in all, the article was well done and the changes are very minor. Great job!RJPet (talk) 03:15, 21 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions and Comments

Three is me (talk) 04:22, 3 October 2014 (UTC) Your article is very interesting and has a lot of great information. I fixed a few grammar mistakes and reworded a couple of confusing sentences. I also linked the article to Apoica pallens since you mentioned it a couple of times. I think that your article could benefit from a section on the system of mating of your species. I also think that your article could use a section detailing the defense of the hive and information on the effects of the wasps' sting on humans. Otherwise, good job![reply]

Trigonalidae image: wrong species

I removed this image from the body as it misrepresents the species. The species pictured is Taeniogonalos gundlachii, a member of the family Trigonalidae. The trigonalid parasite of A. flavissima mentioned in the reference is Seminota marginata. Thus, the picture is out of place in this article unless it can be determined that Taeniogonalos gundlachii, or at least a closely related species, parasitizes A. flavissima. --Animalparty-- (talk) 02:49, 5 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Added Suggestions

This discussion of the Apocia flavissima lacked discussion of mate selection, sex determination, and predation. While well written, these focus areas would significantly strengthen the article. Mate selection is key for individual gene propagation (as discussed in Dawkin’s “The Selfish Gene), thus providing information on the nuances of mating rituals and the way that evolution has impacted reproduction would be great. Sex ratios also play a large role in colony behavior, particularly between the queen and workers, thus this would also be worth noting. In addition, a discussion concerning predation would strengthen the article because insects spend lots of time and energy avoiding predatory attacks and retaliating. Despite these weaknesses however, the article provides a thorough investigation of kin selection and morphology, and was easy to read due to varied sentence structure. These are the articles greatest strengthsMmc7777 (talk) 04:35, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]