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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)

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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)

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