Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Newsletter/008

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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:

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

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)

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