Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Insects/Archive 4

Hello! I'm a fairly new Wikipedia user and I've been updating/creating Wikipedia articles for species to include the standardized common names developed by a national working group in Canada. The process is really slow considering that I've got thousands of species to get through and a lot of the species don't already have Wikipedia pages. I'm wondering if there's another way to accomplish this task that's less labour intensive. For example, is it possible to add the common names to a species list page? Thanks in advance! --VioletBrew (talk) 14:25, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@VioletBrew: Welcome to Wikipedia. Genus pages often have common names following the scientific information, like Andrena could have a line:

• Andrena scutellinitens Viereck, 1916 – shielded miner bee

Generally, it is slow work though. SchreiberBike | ⌨  18:29, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@SchreiberBike: Thanks for the suggestion. Do you think I could also add the reference to the working group on the genus page? Maybe as a footnote? VioletBrew (talk) 18:56, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@VioletBrew: Yes, it could look like:

• Andrena scutellinitens Viereck, 1916 – shielded miner bee^[1]

for example. Feel free to use your own style though. Wikipedia allows for many styles. SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:08, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@SchreiberBike: Awesome! Thanks for your help! VioletBrew (talk) 19:12, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@SchreiberBike: I'm wondering if you can help me fix this footnote issue I'm having on the List of Andrena species page. Since I cite the same reference for all of the common names I've added, the reference at the bottom of the page has a long list of superscripts for all of these citations. Is there a way that I can hide/remove them from the reference? Thanks again. VioletBrew (talk) 22:48, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@VioletBrew: It does look a bit odd, but I think it's supposed to be like that. I've seen it more extreme in other articles, so I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe someone else has an idea though. SchreiberBike | ⌨  22:53, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

(ec) @VioletBrew: These superscript collections in the reference section already represent the most highly condensed form of citation backlinking, since there needs to be a way to jump from the citation to each instance in the text. There's no way to make them go away; such long rows of backlinks are a common feature of big list articles. This shouldn't worry you unduly, though - stuck down there among the references, they are not going to interfere with reading the article per se. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 22:59, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

@SchreiberBike and Elmidae: OK, great. Thank you both for confirming. VioletBrew (talk) 13:22, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

Since May of 2020, I have been making improvements to Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale page by organizing existing content (enhancing readability and updating reference links) and adding content for knowledge gaps (written information, photos, and references). Any constructive feedback you may have would be appreciated (please post on the talk page). Thanks in advance! LSBryce (talk) 16:39, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Günter Bechly (2nd nomination) Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:07, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

I've just revised and expanded Ripipterygidae. Any constructive feedback regarding anything to do with the content and/or formatting of the article would be appreciated (feel free to post on its talk page). Thanks! Spizaetus (talk) 21:17, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Hi all,

• according to the Atlas of Living Australia reference, the species was described in 1997
• according to the BBC Earth reference, this critter won some sort of race against Periplaneta americana in 1996
• given that this is a species under the general topic Fastest animals#Invertebrates, it would be expected to have wide media coverage - which it doesn't appear to have.

The GBIF Identifier suggests that is as synonym of Rivacindela hudsoni...

Your thoughts about this?

Pete AU aka --Shirt58 (talk) 12:11, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

I don't think there is a problem here. The species description is when the creature is formally described in a scientific journal and may be years after its first discovery. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 12:33, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

Hello! I am an undergraduate student studying biology that will be working on writing Wikipedia contributions about insects, particularly flies. Chickfilkay — Preceding undated comment added 16:21, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

At present, {{Speciesbox}} allows only one rank, subgenus, to be directly specified (i.e. not via a taxonomy template). All other such ranks need a taxonomy template to work with {{Speciesbox}}. Please see Template talk:Speciesbox#Ranks between species and genus for a request for comment relating to this. Peter coxhead (talk) 10:19, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

I would appreciate a review of this draft. Should I accept it into article space?

Robert McClenon (talk) 01:26, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Most of the content seems to be what could well be a section in Cultured_meat. Or perhaps a section in Insects_as_food? Shyamal (talk) 06:18, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

The article for Rhadine caudata could use another set of eyes. I had started a discussion on the Talk page but my edits were again reverted without any response. —Hyperik ⌜talk⌟ 19:31, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

The University of Alberta E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum recently changed their database so the references that used to go there no longer work. I'm in the process of updating those, but it's slow work and it won't be done real quickly. If anyone is interested in linking to their species descriptions, their search page is at https://search.museums.ualberta.ca/. Putting in a species name there will take you to a list of all the specimens they have of that species. If you click on one of them, the "View Species Details" link is right next to the scientific name. Hope that helps. SchreiberBike | ⌨  04:06, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

I have opened a GAR for the Insect article at Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Insect/1, feel free to share your thoughts. Hemiauchenia (talk) 03:08, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

The taxonomist User:Nikita-Kluge is editing the Phylogeny section at Neoptera using his own publications, which appear to be based only on morphological evidence, and is inserting many names for taxa which are no longer used. The opinions of editors are invited on the matter. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:48, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Any thoughts on the utility of creating a category for plant taxa that are hosts of galling species? Perhaps a similar category for plants that are hosts for leaf-mining species? Thanks.Friesen5000 (talk) 18:54, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

Utility (to whom?) is not the driving factor for categorization. WP:DEFINING is. We could make categories to suit every niche or arbitrary factor of interest, from galls to predators to "species described by Russian naturalists in English-language journals". But we try to avoid non-defining characteristics, or characteristics only relevant to a miniscule percentage of readers. A single oak species may be the host for dozens of galls and leaf-miners. It may also have cultural importance in Scandinavian folk tales. Such facets can be addressed in the text of the article as appropriate, but we don't need categories for either facet. --Animalparty! (talk) 04:53, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

Oppose. Don't we call that category "Plants"? - the idea makes no sense, as Animalparty says. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:26, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

	Sandbox Organiser A place to help you organise your work

Hi all

I've been working on a tool for the past few months that you may find useful, especially if you create new articles. Wikipedia:Sandbox organiser is a set of tools to help you better organise your draft articles and other pages in your userspace. It also includes areas to keep your to do lists, bookmarks, list of tools. You can customise your sandbox organiser to add new features and sections. Once created you can access it simply by clicking the sandbox link at the top of the page. You can create and then customise your own sandbox organiser just by clicking the button on the page. All ideas for improvements and other versions would be really appreciated.

Huge thanks to PrimeHunter and NavinoEvans for their work on the technical parts, without them it wouldn't have happened.

Hope its helpful

John Cummings (talk) 11:19, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

An article updating Bouchard et al. (2011)'s "Family-group names in Coleoptera (Insecta)" was published last year by Bouchard and Bousquet, just so everyone knows:

• Bouchard, P.; Bousquet, Y. (2020). "Additions and corrections to "Family-group names in Coleoptera (Insecta)"". ZooKeys. 922: 65–139. doi:10.3897/zookeys.922.46367.

I thought it might be useful to post it here for those working on Coleoptera, since for whatever reason this article doesn't seem to have attracted much attention here on Wikipedia so far (nor on some other websites, for that matter). I also left some notes on Talk:List of subgroups of the order Coleoptera#Additions and corrections to Bouchard et al. (2011) back in August to raise awareness of it, but nobody seems to have noticed as far as I can tell. Monster Iestyn (talk) 20:52, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

As part of WP:NPP I came across an article that I think looks like a hoax. Could someone who is knowledgeable about nematodes have a look at Cralosophus and tell me what they think? Thanks, Vexations (talk) 22:49, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

There are a couple dozen instances of search_value=0, which at least in most of the cases seems to be in a link to ITIS. These should be fixed to point at the actual page about the taxon on the website. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 19:26, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

Hi entomofans. I'm suggesting one of "Lepidopterae" or "Lepidopterans" at [[Talk:List of Lepidoptera that feed on Brassica#Propose moving to proper pluralization of title]]. Invasive Spices (talk) 21:25, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

I was trying to provide Strachiini with some actually usable source (right now it has ... iNaturalist) and could not find any database that lists a tribe Strachiini. Turns out that is the case for most of the dozens of tribes listed at Pentatominae - they have no functional references. ITIS shows five, and that's the best I could discover. Any idea where these could be found? --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 15:53, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

The Pentatominae article has Biolib as a source, which includes Strachiini. The Wikispecies article on Pentatominae has a dead link to David Rider's website. A live version is here. ITIS is not comprehensive for some (many?) groups; coverage of taxa occurring in the US (and Canada) has been prioritized; ITIS's predecessor, NODC was focused on marine organisms (no geographical priority, but NODC was also far from comprehensive). I wouldn't rely on ITIS for any insects. Plantdrew (talk) 16:20, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

Alright, thanks. Are we happy with BioLib.cz as a source? --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 16:34, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

The problem with many below family classifications, regardless of the taxonomic group, is that you can find old systems based on morphological criteria (e.g. this 1979 paper for Western Hemisphere tribes of Pentatominae), but they rarely survive molecular phylogenetic analyses. A 2017 paper at doi:10.1111/syen.12224 has some relevant comments in the abstract: "Robust phylogenetic hypotheses have become key for studies addressing the evolutionary biology and ecology of various groups of organisms. In the species-rich heteropteran superfamily Pentatomoidea, phylogenies at lower taxonomic levels are still scarce and mostly employ exclusively morphological data."

My conclusion is that it's not worth going down to the tribal level at present unless and until there is a published classification based on extensive molecular phylogenetic analyses. Peter coxhead (talk) 16:40, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

Could someone with access to Nel & Zhengs (2021) Cephalozygoptera rebuttal add an entry to the general research list on 2021 in insect paleontology, or pass a copy on to me via email, so I can add it? thanks!--Kevmin § 18:11, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Megaceras briansaltini 24,846 828 Stub--Coin945 (talk) 14:43, 30 May 2021 (UTC)

Hi There!

I've been working on the article Geophilus flavus, I was hoping someone would be willing to evaluate it and assign a new grading? It's currently at stub-class, however, I think it's been substantially improved since the last assessment. I would also greatly appreciate any feedback or editing tips.

Kind thanks,

--Witchruby (talk) 02:36, 31 May 2021 (UTC) Please feel free to chat on my talk page

--Witchruby (talk) 02:22, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

1234qwer1234qwer4 noticed an issue with mismatched synonym authorities in about 500 taxon articles created by Qbugbot in 2018. We are planning to run another bot to fix it. Your input is welcome at the approval request, particularly as a sanity check to make sure we're not doing something very silly. Thanks! — The Earwig (talk) 03:51, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

Hi, I'd like to rename these two pages for leaf beetle genera, based on this article published last year:

• Fidia Baly, 1863 → Neofidia Strother in Kumari et al., 2020
• Lypesthes Baly, 1863 → Fidia Motschulsky, 1861

I would do this myself, but unfortunately this seems to require a half-swap so I need some help from a page mover. Same goes for the taxonomy templates.

If it helps to know, the new names are accepted on iNaturalist, though not yet on BugGuide, ITIS and most other websites. I've also already updated the corresponding Wikispecies pages to use the new names. A checklist of species in both genera are included in the article for convenience (though strangely, Strother's Fidia chapini is missing with no explanation?).

Monster Iestyn (talk) 16:01, 3 June 2021 (UTC)

Have made the move, let me know if anything else needs to be done. I have informed one of the paper' authors who I know about the missing species. Will update based on their response. Shyamal (talk) 09:13, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! I assumed it might be a mistake, so on Wikispecies the best I could do was assume it had been moved to the new genus too. Though I couldn't really tell if that's acceptable to do on Wikipedia or not. Monster Iestyn (talk) 15:16, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

I've now rewritten both pages to fit the new names and renamed all the Fidia species pages, and I've swapped the taxonomy templates over now that I've been granted the page mover right. Monster Iestyn (talk) 17:21, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Thanks. I heard from Strother via my contact that Fidia chapini should have been included in Neofidia but for an oversight. The author noted it as an irony as it was named after a colleague Joan Chapin who always stressed thorough proofreading of manuscripts! Shyamal (talk) 03:02, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

@Shyamal: Ah, thank you for looking into that, glad to know that little mystery has been solved at last. I don't think there's anything more that needs to be done with these pages now (except maybe updating all the other language Wikipedias to match them...). Monster Iestyn (talk) 11:58, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

I mean, there's nothing more that is technical that needs to be done, the actual contents could be expanded and written better, but you get the idea. Monster Iestyn (talk) 12:31, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

Could someone look this over? It came to my attention because it was assigned some nonexistent categories and there are no available sources for me to check up on the subject. Thank you. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 16:08, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Can anyone decipher what the parenthetical and ambiguous link to Aptera in Rhopalosiphoninus latysiphon means? Ta, Narky Blert (talk) 06:48, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Aphids have winged and wingless (apterous) morphs. I have cut the jargon. Shyamal (talk) 10:02, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

It has been proposed that Gamergate controversy be renamed and moved to Gamergate (harassment campaign). Your feedback would be appreciated at this discussion. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 18:48, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

• Of note is the counter proposal by some editors to move Gamergate controversy to Gamergate and move that article to Gamergate (ant). Precedent in the last 7 years has favored 'Gamergate being about the ant biology, given the several hundred year history of the entomology term, rather then the recent use of the term for the Gamergate controversy.--Kevmin § 22:44, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

The current discussion is at Gamergate#Requested move 20 August 2021. It includes options to rename:

Gamergate → Gamergate (ant)

Gamergate (harassment campaign) → Gamergate

Johnuniq (talk) 05:23, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Gamergate#Requested move 20 August 2021 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject.  — Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 16:19, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

I was cleaning up infobox image syntax and the image here is apparently (according to caption) of a species not listed in the article (there are only three). The source shows over a dozen, but not Glypta arctica. Other languages have a stub on this species. MB 03:45, 23 August 2021 (UTC)

@MB: Glypta arctica is not listed on Fauna Europaea probably because it is not from Europe, which would make it out of scope for that website. Meanwhile, GBIF for instance records it from Canada and Greenland. Hope that helps as a starting point.

As for the state of the article itself, well, this appears to be one of the articles Estopedist1 recently created (I talked about his many new genera articles at WikiProject Tree of Life months ago, to save repeating myself here). Later, another editor must added an image to the article, presumably as part of WPWP 2021, though not being aware how incomplete the article itself was. Monster Iestyn (talk) 05:47, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

As an absolute minimum, Estopedist1's genus stubs should say "Species include:" because he made no attempt to produce a comprehensive list. The British and Irish Checklist alone has over 30 species. Peter coxhead (talk) 06:42, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

I have gone and added all the species from GBIF (not including 17 unnamed/unranked), increasing the list from three to over 450. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MB (talk • contribs) 12:26, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

Hello, fellow Insect Wikipedians! Could someone in the WikiProject please review the articles Polybia paulista and Roundheaded pine beetle to see if they qualify as B-class articles? If they don't, I'm willing to work with you to improve them to that point. Thank you! Gug01 (talk) 19:06, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

Hi all

I've started a discussion on the reliable sources noticeboard about Encyclopedia of Life as a reliable source for Wikipedia, please share your thoughts here. I've added some basic information about EOL at the top of the section to help inform the discussion.

Thanks very much

John Cummings (talk) 20:25, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

Our article says Kuschelydrus, and so does the sole reference. However, Smrz 1983 and Ordish 1986 say Kuschelhydrus; which feels a more natural spelling for a name containing a -hydr- root. Does anyone have access to Ordish 1976, the original description, to make sure? Narky Blert (talk) 06:38, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

https://books.google.com/books?id=X4YcDQAAQBAJ also uses Kuschelhydrus but the 1976 Ordish description paper does spell it Kuschelydrus. Shyamal (talk) 08:00, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

A Google Scholar search returned 19 hits for the original spelling Kuschelydrus and only 4 for the variant Kuschelhydrus. It's odd that Ordish gives a different spelling in 1986 that used in authoring the genus in 1976, but it does seem that the variant with h is just an orthographic error. Peter coxhead (talk) 09:08, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks both! Narky Blert (talk) 16:54, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

I've created an {{R from mispelling}}, and added a footnote with a hidden link to this discussion. Narky Blert (talk) 17:15, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Hi, I would appreciate any input on the AfC submission Draft:Luthrodes boopis as gbif has it as Deleted, and other sources such as iNaturalist and mindat are not good. Cheers KylieTastic (talk) 14:36, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

It appears that Luthrodes boopis might no longer exist as a species. Has the Luthrodes genus been undergoing taxonomic reorganization? That's something to look into. Gug01 (talk) 17:17, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

Note that another reviewer accepted so now at Luthrodes boopis KylieTastic (talk) 17:31, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

There's an AfD here that needs to be decided on subject / source knowledge rather than WP policy. Some comments would be welcome. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 16:40, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

The name Strumigenys ayersthey has been changed to Strumigenys longamaxilla throughout the page and via a page move for which there is no nomenclatural justification, which I see as an act of vandalism. See my recent edits on both pages and their talk pages for details. -- Daniel Mietchen (talk) 17:11, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

Hello. Do you guys have a new articles list, similar to Wikipedia:WikiProject Plants/New article listing? I'm looking to try out my User:Novem Linguae/Scripts/AddTaxobox.js script on some insect articles, to make sure there's no "bugs" (har har). Thanks. –Novem Linguae (talk) 14:34, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Nothing for insects specifically, but User:AlexNewArtBot/ArthropodsSearchResult picks up new insect articles. New articles without taxoboxes are pretty rare though (I monitor all of the AlexNewArtBot reports for organisms). If you want to test your script, the best bet might just be to make new articles without taxoboxes yourself and then run the script. Plantdrew (talk) 16:56, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Thanks Plantdrew. I went through all the AlexNewArtBot reports in the biology section earlier, got about 100 edits in with the script. Some of them were minor MOS:ORDER stuff, but some were good time savers, such as adding a Taxonbar with the correct Wikidata ID, or replacing a general stub with a more specific stub. Is there currently an AlexNewArtBot report that just lists organisms/species? That'd be a great list for testing. If that report doesn't exist, I will consider creating it. –Novem Linguae (talk) 17:23, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

@Novem Linguae:, there isn't a report for organisms/species in general. I've thought about creating a rule-set for new taxon articles myself, but haven't gotten around to it. The current set of reports doesn't cover mammals, animals that aren't chordates/gastropods/arthropods, eukaryotes that aren't plants/animals/fungi, or bacteria (although the current reports may incidentally pick up articles on some taxa that aren't included; e.g. the -aceae ending for bacteria/plant families ensures that many new bacteria articles show up in the plants report). And with automatic taxoboxes some articles may slip through the cracks; a manual taxobox for an insect would include "classis=Insecta" which the arthropods rule-set looks for. With an automatic taxobox, somebody could write an article about a "weevil" (not a word the rule-set looks for currently), without ever mentioning the word "insect".

It would be easier to create a new rule-set that covers all taxa, than a rule-set that covers any of the subgroups currently without a new article report. An all taxa rule-set should give full points for the presence of any taxobox template, the phrase "is a species of"; and a bunch of points for "idae" and "aceae", etc. Whereas a rule-set for mammals would need to look for ungulate/bat/rodent/marsupial/cetacean/etc. (all being words that could occur in the place of any mention of "mammal"). If you're feeling inspired to create an all taxa rule-set, go for it! Plantdrew (talk) 22:15, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Yes, I am feeling inspired :) My initial thought was to create it with the following two rules: article title must contain exactly 2 words (e.g. Genus species), and article body must contain the word "species". Then calibrate from there. Your ideas are great too and may be essential to filtering out false positives. –Novem Linguae (talk) 22:21, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Created. Rules at User:AlexNewArtBot/Species, results at User:AlexNewArtBot/SpeciesSearchResult. Let's see how well it does and tweak from there. –Novem Linguae (talk) 22:43, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

@Plantdrew. The first run worked really well. We've got a big list and a false positive rate of only like 10%. I just made some additional tweaks that should reduce false positives even more. Exciting! –Novem Linguae (talk) 23:14, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

I have been working on the Lycorma genus and currently aim to bring it to good topic status. Lycorma delicatula (Spotted Lanternfly) was just promoted to GA and I've begun work on Lycorma imperialis. If I could have someone get good images for Lycorma meliae, Lycorma olivacea, and perhaps a couple more for Lycorma imperialis, that would be greatly appreciated. The current images online are limited and I am parsing through what little copyright free content there is. iNaturalist has very good images but nothing that is creative commons. Additionally, if someone wishes to help, the genus page Lycorma also needs serious work. I will likely create Lycorma meliae, and Lycorma olivacea within the the next week or so. Etriusus (talk) 20:03, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

Some good news is that Lycorma meliae, and Lycorma olivacea have tons of images on Flickr. Lycorma imperialis, however, is substantially lacking in online images. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Etriusus (talk) 05:32, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

Excuse me, I do appreciate how all of these animal names are listed down since 1757-preasent.

But because I am autistic, I can't understand their scientific or in this case, Latin, names. I would most like like to see and know all of their names listed down, with their common names only.

For example, if you see these lists of the certain animals described. And because most of them are listed down in scientific names, I would want a whole list of common names for each creature from every genus.

Insects described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Beetles described in the 18th-20th century‎ listed in common names. Butterflies described in the 18th-20th century‎ listed in common names. Moths described in the 18th-20th century‎ listed in common names. Amphibians described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Crustaceans described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Fish described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Molluscs described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Bivalves described in the 18th-20th century‎ listed in common names. Cephalopods described in the 18th-20th century‎ listed in common names. Chitons described in the 18th-20th century‎ listed in common names. Gastropods described in the 18th-20th century‎ listed in common names. Nematodes described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Reptiles described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Spiders described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names. Starfish described in the 18th-20th century listed in common names.

It's just so that since I am working on some kind of article of Noah's Ark. So I was wondering that I would like to see all of these names listed down from all of these species described from the 18th to 20th centuries. And even if you do put their scientific or Latin names, at least have any who have common names be replaced with their common names.

Conthauberger (talk) 04:18, 8 February 2022 (UTC)ConthaubergerConthauberger (talk) 04:18, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

@Conthauberger: I don't think I quite understand your request. There already exist categories by year discovered for most insects, although there are likely a number of pages lacking this category (a brief review of your edit history tells me you know how categories work). Likewise, there are still 10s of thousands of insect pages that have yet to be made on Wikipedia. Compound that with the fact there are ~8.7 million species in Animalia, and I don't think a comprehensive list is physically possible. The servers would melt if we made an article 100s of megabytes long and the manpower needed would be equally insane. Additionally, only some animals have common names, others lack common names or share them amongst a Family.

Perhaps more clarification is necessary. There already exists a Noah's Ark page and it wouldn't meet WP:NOTE to put every conceivable animal on that page.

Etriusus 19:52, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

Earlier this week, along with applying some WikiProject Insects or subproeject tags on a chunk of taxonomy templates, I added the Hymenoptera task force to a larger set of talk pages added by Ser Amantio di Nicolao, but found by this query that there is an even bigger (preferably handled by a bot) list of pages, apparently tagged by the same user, that are using {{WikiProject Insects}} even though they should be in {{WikiProject Diptera}}. Since this seems to be done inconsistently on articles, I would like to ask whether replacing the tag by its subproject or just adding the latter is preferred. I've not seen the same issue with Lepidoptera and beetles by the way; these were all only tagged with the most specific project. 1234 kb of .rar files (is this dangerous?) 12:39, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

I have (with the help of others) made a small user script to detect and highlight various links to unreliable sources and predatory journals. Some of you may already be familiar with it, given it is currently the 39th most imported script on Wikipedia. The idea is that it takes something like

• John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14. (John Smith "[https://www.deprecated.com/article Article of things]" ''Deprecated.com''. Accessed 2020-02-14.)

and turns it into something like

• John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.

It will work on a variety of links, including those from {{cite web}}, {{cite journal}} and {{doi}}.

The script is mostly based on WP:RSPSOURCES, WP:NPPSG and WP:CITEWATCH and a good dose of common sense. I'm always expanding coverage and tweaking the script's logic, so general feedback and suggestions to expand coverage to other unreliable sources are always welcomed.

Do note that this is not a script to be mindlessly used, and several caveats apply. Details and instructions are available at User:Headbomb/unreliable. Questions, comments and requests can be made at User talk:Headbomb/unreliable.

- Headbomb {t · c · p · b}

This is a one time notice and can't be unsubscribed from. Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:01, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Today I was editing the page for Lema daturaphila and saw there is also a page for Lema trivittata, which seems to be the same insect. It looks like L. trivittata might be an older synonym? EponineBunnyKickQueen (talk) 03:36, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Never mind. It looks like L. trivittata was thought to be a subspecies of L. daturaphila, but they are now considered different species. EponineBunnyKickQueen (talk) 03:46, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Hello, I just finished up and submitted my draft for my first Wikipedia article. Should I add it to the Article Alerts section on the wikiproject page? I also added the WikiProject Insects and WikiProect Lepidoptera. If it is okay with you guys, I would like to get some feedback. I sincerely apologize if this is not the right place to talk about this. I am still relatively new to Wikipedia. Jcuber17 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 05:45, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Pseudagrion coeleste is an existing article. Pseudagrion coelestis was a redlink and since the common name for both was reported to be the Catshead sprite, I redirected it to the article. Just want to confirm this was correct. Thanks. MB 19:29, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

Posted at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day:

Pseudatelus is scheduled for 5 July but the target article isn't up to scratch. It's very clearly a stub and it has a maintenance tag. Hence in its current form, we can't run it, but there is plenty of time to do something about it. I'll transclude this note onto Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Insects.

There's still tons of time to do something about it. Schwede66 22:13, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

I had seen this Wikidata item on Encarsia hansoni and noticed it had no Wikipedia article in English (it had 4 in other languages). So I created it. I then found Encarsia harrisoni and needed a critical eye to help me check if they were the same. Danidamiobi (talk) 14:44, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

They appear to be distinct. Both are listed on the GBIF genus entry for Encarsia. Loopy30 (talk) 11:44, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

There is a discussion at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Requests for comment/Article creation at scale; the primary issue of concern is editors creating large numbers of stubs. Articles on species are repeatedly brought up as examples. "Large numbers" is not defined, but from the positions taken by some commenters an editor who regularly creates one article a day might be considered to be engaged in article creation at scale. Plantdrew (talk) 17:11, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Something doesn't sit right with me about the state of the taxonomy in the Polyneoptera article: most of it right now is sourced from the Polyneoptera Species File website, with notable exception to the listing at "Perlidea/Plecopteroidea" which is sourced instead from Aristov (2014). Looking at Polyneoptera SF itself, however, it doesn't seem to be fully consistent in its own taxonomy itself currently: Dermaptera is no longer placed to magnorder nor superorder (the website's home page explains why there are no magnorders anymore at least) yet the related extinct order Protelytroptera is placed under Dermaptera's old home, the superorder Dermapterida (what I assume judging by other sources at least, as well as of course the similar name). It seems to be a similar story with Plecoptera, Cnemidolestida and Perlidea/Plecopteroidea, except Arillo & Engel (2006) for instance placed Plecoptera in a superorder "Plecopterida" instead (!). All this and further digging on Google has told me is that the higher classification for orders within Polyneoptera is still unsettled, and very different depending on who you ask exactly, with exception to Dictyoptera (and even then I can't be sure). What can be done about this mess on Wikipedia meanwhile? Should we discard any higher classification for the time being? Or should we stick to Polyneoptera SF more purely for extant orders, but not for the extinct ones? Something else?

On a related note, I recently discovered that the Earwig article alone was (and still is) the only member of Category:Exopterygota apart from Exopterygota itself, and likewise it was the only article for an extant insect order with Exopterygota as its parent taxon in its taxobox until I edited it recently. Does anyone know anything about why this was the case? (This came up when I was trying to figure out what to do with Protelytroptera in a discussion on WikiProject Palaeontology recently, if it helps to know) Monster Iestyn (talk) 00:55, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Looking at the webarchive, the speciesfile page for Dermapterida originally contained Dermaptera (2014 archive) as you surmised, but was removed by the next archive leaving an empty page (2015 archive). Then Protelytroptera was added in 2020 (e.g. Sept 26). For Wikipedia purposes, I don't think we should use unless it also contains Dermaptera. Place Protelytroptera in Polyneoptera, unless we can find a source putting it in Haplocerata with Dermaptera and Zoraptera (Kjer eta

In the automated taxobox system, Exopterygota now only contains Blattoptera, which redirects to roachoid. —  Jts1882 | talk  20:47, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Yep I saw that (re: Blattoptera), but nothing actually uses the Blattoptera taxonomy template except for two articles for extinct cockroaches: Aphthoroblattina and Archimylacris. So those two are the only articles left on Wikipedia using Exopterygota in their taxonomies at all, besides Exopterygota itself.

Honestly while what you say about Protelytroptera makes sense, this still leaves Polyneoptera's taxonomy on Wikipedia as rather... WP:SYNTH or something? Maybe I'm really just mostly bothered about the mixing of Polyneoptera SF with Aristov (2014), because I'm not sure if the classification in the latter is generally accepted or not. Particularly since it uses alternative set of names, e.g. "Forficulida" for Dermaptera, "Perlida" for Plecoptera and even "Gryllones" for Polyneoptera itself. Plus, Perlidea under this system appears to be non-monophyletic anyway, if Song et al 2016's phylogeny tree is any indication (as it includes every extant order except Orthoptera, Phasmatodea and Zoroptera). Monster Iestyn (talk) 00:28, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

Would there be any objection to following what has been well demonstrated in studies and is growing since 2020 and largely accepted as consensus? ie the treatment of Cicindelidae as a full family that is sister to the Carabidae (rather than nested within). This would affect categories, automatic taxoboxes, and stub templates. This was nearly fixed before being rolled back by User:Timrollpickering as an undiscussed move. Shyamal (talk) 04:59, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

• References: doi:10.1111/syen.12440 doi:10.1111/syen.12506 doi:10.1111/syen.12508 doi:10.1111/syen.12324 Shyamal (talk) 04:59, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
• Tagging @Dyanega: @Timrollpickering:

You need to propose category changes at WP:CFD, not arbitrarily move some of them and leave other bits behind. Timrollpickering (talk) 12:15, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

It is more than a category change unfortunately and involves some subject expertise. Maintenance and move of the category is less of an issue. Shyamal (talk) 13:04, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Personally I'm glad to see them as their own family again, but how stable is the reclassification in the literature? Is there any opposition/discussion like that going on, or has it overall been accepted? If it is the latter, I don't see any issue with moving them back to the original Cicindelidae. It's news to me, though I haven't checked in on this family for awhile.

Just also noting that I'm pretty sure a proposed change isn't need at CfD. If there is consensus at Tiger beetle that Cicindelidae is now the family, the categories just have to follow that change. KoA (talk) 16:24, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

The category move interface seems to have created new rules "written in stone" warning that "Categories should not be moved without discussion and consensus at either Wikipedia:Categories for discussion or Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy" - in any case I began Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2022_November_15#Category:Cicindelinae Shyamal (talk) 06:43, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

• Support elevating subfamily to family. Dyanega recently asked me about editing tools that would make it easier to do large scale edits needed to update taxonomic articles, and Cicindelinae->Cincindelidae was one of the examples he gave where large scale edits are needed. It doesn't take a lot of edits to update automatic taxoboxes, and a bot will take care of the category if that is brought up at CfD. As a quick fix, the stub template could be redirected, but I think it would be better to update links to the stub template. There isn't any easy fix for articles with manual taxoboxes, and mentions of the (sub)family in the body of an article. Plantdrew (talk) 17:39, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Yeah, to clarify on CfD and my comment on it above, there shouldn't be a need for a full proposal, it would just be a considered a speedy uncontroversial change the bots could do instead by going that route.

I remember setting up AWB to restore beetle talk pages back when this wikiproject template was removed. I'm curious how easily that could be set to update to auto taxoboxes, but maybe a winter project I'll look into more too if no one else has an easier solution. KoA (talk) 17:59, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

There's a script that can make it easier to implement Speciesboxes: User:William Avery/taxoboxalyzer. Plantdrew (talk) 20:59, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

I was just at a conference where this topic came up, it sounds like carabid workers are almost universally on board with the treatment as a monophyletic sister taxon to carabids, and if there's any residual "controversy" it's the common problem of how to treat monophyletic sister taxa: sometimes people like to lump them, sometimes not, there is no objective criterion to prefer one approach over the other. We are left with trying to assess how the community consensus leans, and it seems to lean towards family rank, and this is understandable because the family can be readily and objectively diagnosed. This is sort of the opposite of the situation with weevils, where Curculionidae and Brachyceridae were recently treated as separate families with sister-taxon relationship, but brachycerids don't have even a single visible feature that can be used to separate them from curculionids, so the community has been fairly resistant to accepting the split. Dyanega (talk) 01:13, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

There has been no objection either here or at CfD. Is there a best practice for how this should be done? Shyamal (talk) 07:58, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

It's just awaiting a close at this point as of yesterday, though I'm not sure how often CfD is patrolled either. I'd give it a day or two before checking in with an admin, etc. Still, having to wait this long for what should be a simple change definitely seems to go against WP:NOTBURO policy. This may be a reoccurring problem if CfD "permission" is needed whenever taxonomic changes occur. KoA (talk) 16:24, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

It has been closed and I have given it an AWB run. Shyamal (talk) 06:27, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

As per this thread on Wikidata Biodiversity Project, many members of the 'garbage family' Pteromalidae have now been reclassified in this recent paper. If anyone is looking for a current project, apparently there are lots of new families, subfamilies, and tribes to add. Loopy30 (talk) 19:47, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

Wow, that is some revision of Chalcidoidea. There is a companion paper on the phylogeny that is still under review but available a bioRxiv (Cruard et al, 2023). Seems a bit odd that the taxonomy changes get published before the phylogeny they are partly based on.

Not sure how we should handle it. Wikipedia rules suggest we need to wait until the new taxonomy is picked up by secondary sources, although you could argue the taxonomy changes are a secondary source for the new phylogenetic hypothesis. Presumably Wikidata can act as the new taxa have been formerly published. —  Jts1882 | talk  12:02, 30 December 2022 (UTC)

That said, the family list at Chalcidoidea was updated a week ago (this edit). —  Jts1882 | talk  12:06, 30 December 2022 (UTC)

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Harpalus numidicus is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Harpalus numidicus until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.

EvilxFish (talk) 04:55, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi, I'm writing this on behalf of and at the request of User:Bardusquus, my friend who's much more knowledgeable about termites than I am but still somewhat new to editing and less familiar with some of the ins and outs of the encyclopedia.

He'd like to make some changes to the cladogram at Termite, particularly by adding the family Hodotermopsidae stating that the correct order would be "Mastotermitidae, to Stolotermitidae, to Hodotermopsidae, to Hodotermitidae, to Archotermopsidae" and provided me with the following reference images: , , .

I would perform these edits myself, but I'm far too ignorant on insect-related subjects and I've never edited a cladogram before so I'm afraid I'd mess something up.

Could anyone here verify that these proposed changes are accurate and, if so, edit the Termite article to reflect them?

Thank you,

 Vanilla  Wizard 💙 21:03, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Note: I would've simply asked at Talk:Termite but the WikiProject talk page seems to be more active than the article talk page  Vanilla  Wizard 💙 21:09, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

I would also like to mention that there Neoisoptera and Euisoptera were coined as nanorder and parvorder on the Wikipedia page for termites, and I have no idea where that originated. I like the general idea of keeping them in the cladogram, and also including Teletisoptera as a new clade under Euisoptera from which Stolotermitidae, Hodotermopsidae, Hodotermitidae and Archotermopsidae are included under. https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/syen.12548 Bardusquus (talk) 21:39, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Neoisoptera and Euisoptera are indicated in Fig 66 of the Krishna et al (2013) article cited for the cladogram and they are presented with ranks in the classification (starting p183).

As for your proposed change, I think an additional cladogram of molecular studies on extant termites is the best solution. We shouldn't add addition families to the cladogram showing fossil forms as that would be WP:synthesis. We also need the sources for those figures. I found the Wang et al (2022) paper for the second, but can't find the first. —  Jts1882 | talk  11:01, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

There are two studies, the one which formally created the subfamily Hodotermopsinae (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.472027v3.full) and the one linked in my above post which officially elevates Hodotermopsinae to family status. I know Euisoptera and Neoisoptera are valid clades, however the reasoning for them being listed as parvorder and nanorder respectively alludes me. The Krisha et al (2013) article cited is outdated and I would source both studies I've posted as valid taxonomic changes for the cladogram, which would mainly consist of the reorganization of the families and new inclusion of Hodotermopsidae. Hodotermopsidae has no fossil taxa as far as I am aware, it is currently represented by one taxa, Hodotermopsis sjostedti. Bardusquus (talk) 11:47, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

Both papers cited I might add have phylogenetic trees and analyses verifying the general order of known Isoptera taxa. I have access to the former paper which although focuses more on Hodotermopsidae and the phylogeny of Teletisoptera, is still in agreement with the general placement of taxa in the latter study. I have access to the former study, however I am unsure on how to send it through Wikipedia. Bardusquus (talk) 11:56, 13 January 2023 (UTC)

A discussion is in progress at Talk:Coccinellidae#Lady beetle naming about the status of vernacular names for these insects. Project members are invited to participate. Chiswick Chap (talk) 19:53, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

Colony collapse disorder has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. —Femke 🐦 (talk) 19:35, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Could someone have a look at Africanized bee? A new editor replaced and "Unreferenced section" tag with a source that does verify the entire Queen management section (or even most of it). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 11:04, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Y'all may want to look at this edit . It appears to be a good faith addition (the editor only made two edits) but needs some copy-editing by an expert 76.14.122.5 (talk) 00:05, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

I am working on improvements to the article Uropetala carovei, the New Zealand bush giant dragonfly. I have come across the term "naiad", but need some help. Several recent reliable sources use the term "naiad" in describing the immature form eg and Milen Marinov; Mike Ashbee (2019). Dragonflies and Damselflies of New Zealand (1, first ed.). Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-892-3. OL 28725690M. Wikidata Q116734647. However, the article Nymph (biology) says that the term is no longer in favour, and cites a 2016 paper from Systematic Entomology.. I am unclear about what term to use, and would appreciate feedback on the talk page of the Uropetala article. Marshelec (talk) 22:12, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

In my reading of the 2016 paper, the authors actually state that it is not particularly problematic to use the terms. Here is a verbatim quote from the conclusion section (bolding mine) :

Evidence shows that the terms ‘larva’, ‘nymph’ and ‘naiad’ – particularly the latter two – refer merely to evolutionary grades rather than to distinct, nonhomologous types of juveniles. This does not mean that if they are defined on a descriptive basis they are not recognizable, and certainly the majority of juveniles are easy to be classified into one of them. They, however, do not have a biological meaning deeper than that of the term ‘maggot’ used for the characteristic larval form of higher Diptera, or ‘grub’ for that of chafers. Such terms are frequent in entomology and there is no need of eliminating them from our terminology, but one should not think that they have a precise biological definition and therefore a ‘correct’ (i.e. scientifically meaningful) use. Because the term ‘nymph’ – much less so ‘naiad’ – is already widely used in descriptive entomology, and can perhaps have some educational value when used for particular kinds of larvae, we find their usage acceptable, albeit not particularly useful. We encourage editors and reviewers to let the authors decide whether they want to adopt the established idiosyncratic terminology fixed by tradition or rather follow the homology-based terminology – none of the ways seem to cause any confusion. The worst practice would be to force the authors to use a particular kind of allegedly ‘correct’ terminology and thus prevent its natural semantic evolution.

- Redei, D., & Štys, P. (2016). Larva, nymph and naiad - for accuracy’s sake. Systematic Entomology, 41(3):505–510. doi:10.1111/syen.12177 Shyamal (talk) 11:14, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Could someone who knows where the authoritative sources are check up on the synonymy of this species? CoL has it as a synonym of Pnigalio agraules, however that doesn't seem to follow from their stated source dataset (Universal Chalcidoidea Database). (The Arthropoda Species File, suggested as a source on the main project page, doesn't even recognize the genus) --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 08:29, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

doi:10.1080/00222930903105088 examines the issue. Have added it to the entry. Shyamal (talk) 10:54, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Ha! Didn't expect something this directly applicable. Thanks :) --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 12:53, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

I started a move request over at Talk:Horse-fly#Requested_move_15_March_2023 that would benefit from more insect folks taking a look.

The short of it is that I ran into some issues with common names not redirecting to the correct taxonomic levels, so there's a couple moves listed there as I dug into things more. Horse-fly currently is the title of Tabanidae, but not all tabanids are horse flies, some are deer flies. Deer fly also redirects to just a single genus of deer fly rather than the entire subfamily of deer flies. I took a stab at lining things up a bit better, but definitely open to any better organizational ideas for article titles in the group. KoA (talk) 16:34, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Quality assessments by Wikipedia editors rate articles in terms of completeness, organization, prose quality, sourcing, etc. Most wikiprojects follow the general guidelines at Wikipedia:Content assessment, but some have specialized assessment guidelines. A recent Village pump proposal was approved and has been implemented to add a |class= parameter to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, which can display a general quality assessment for an article, and to let project banner templates "inherit" this assessment.

No action is required if your wikiproject follows the standard assessment approach. Over time, quality assessments will be migrated up to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, and your project banner will automatically "inherit" any changes to the general assessments for the purpose of assigning categories.

However, if your project has decided to "opt out" and follow a non-standard quality assessment approach, all you have to do is modify your wikiproject banner template to pass {{WPBannerMeta}} a new |QUALITY_CRITERIA=custom parameter. If this is done, changes to the general quality assessment will be ignored, and your project-level assessment will be displayed and used to create categories, as at present. Aymatth2 (talk) 15:49, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Is there a more specific page about notability criteria for this than WP:Notability - draft written by NahlaMaltija - does it meet notability criteria? - (I am a new draft reviewer and this is not my strong topic area) Thanks Gryllida (talk, e-mail) 00:52, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

There is a discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life#Rank of Endopterygota that might be interesting to you and that would benefit from your input. Please come and help. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 08:53, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Hi, I am looking to see if anyone has access to the following journal article:

• Some records of Tabanidae (Diptera) from British Honduras (Belize)
• by Williams, P
• published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, 1971, Vol.8 (1), p.98-107 https://doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/8.1.98

My online access to this journal through Scholars Portal Journals: BioOne is currently restricted to issues dating from 2000-2017 only. Thanks, Loopy30 (talk) 18:18, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

I can send you a copy I found easily using sci-hub! Send me an email if the hidden link here does not work Shyamal (talk) 01:13, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks Shyamal, that worked! Loopy30 (talk) 14:59, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

A new classification for planthoppers (Fulgoromorpha) was published in an article last year: https://doi.org/10.3161/00034541ANZ2022.72.4.011 Basically, it now includes three superfamilies Fulgoroidea, Cixioidea and Fulgoridioidea, plus several fossil families not placed to superfamily as well as several incertae sedis fossil genera.

Is it too early to adopt this on Wikipedia too? I don't think many subsequent articles (if any at all) have adopted this new classification yet, but on the other hand BugGuide and iNaturalist are already using it from what I can tell. Monster Iestyn (talk) 15:13, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

I don't know what the standard is among folks who really focus on taxonomy articles here, but I'd usually figure that I'd want other sources to confirm that the change is being used. Sometimes new proposed changes just don't stick, and BugGuide / iNaturalist, while great for us entomologists, are tricky when it comes to wiki WP:RS on taxonomy. KoA (talk) 15:22, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

I had a feeling other sources were needed myself, but so far I haven't found any publications using the new classification except from works by one or both of the two co-authors. If BugGuide and iNaturalist aren't reliable enough on their own then perhaps it's better to come back to updating the planthopper taxonomy at a later point. Monster Iestyn (talk) 19:50, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

I should say the flip side is that in smaller or less studied groups, it may take a long time to get that confirmation. Planthoppers though might not be so bad in that regard, so I'm curious what others think in this case. KoA (talk) 20:16, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

The new version of the World Auchenorrhyncha Database splits Fulgoroidea into three superfamilies, although doesn't give a source for this treatment. It's not quite the same as Bourgoin and Szwedo (2023) in that it uses Delphacoidea instead of Cixioidea and retains the extinct Coleoscytoidea and Surijokocixiioideathe as superfamilies. —  Jts1882 | talk  06:46, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882 The article I linked was from 2022, not 2023, unless you meant the followup Zootaxa article (available via ResearchGate) by the same authors? But that article actually uses Delphacoidea instead of Cixioidea and retains the extinct superfamilies. It looks likely to me that it's the source for the World Auchenorrhyncha Database's Fulgoromorpha classification I expect. Monster Iestyn (talk) 13:38, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

I was referring to the 2022 article (I got the year wrong). I found the 2023 follow-up article shortly after posting and it has a note explaining the priority of Delphacoidea. It does seems the likely source for World Auchenorrhyncha Database classification, which seems ahead of Bourgoin's own site FLOW (Fulgoromorpha Lists on The Web) in updating the classification (FLOW doesn't use multiple superfamilies). I think we can adopt the new classification as we have an independent secondary source. —  Jts1882 | talk  13:56, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Are Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea currently considered orders, or suborders of order Notoptera? Wikipedia currently reads as if everyone has considered them suborders of Notoptera since Arillo & Engel (2006). However, the note in Schoville (2014) suggests there is still some debate about this (at least, at the time it was written, anyway). Additionally, they are ranked as orders in the Species Files websites (both here and here) as well as Zhang (2011)'s Arthropoda classification from the "Animal biodiversity" Zootaxa volume. I have also seen a number of other articles treat them as orders, though sometimes this is merely implied by them being listed alongside other insect orders.

In short, it looks to me like a lot of scientists still consider them orders. Should Wikipedia be treating them as orders too? Monster Iestyn (talk) 18:28, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

I think they are still mostly treated as orders. While I see the sense of some lumping of small orders, the Notoptera proposal doesn't seem to have caught on. In addition to your examples, the Kjer et al (2016, doi:10.1098/rsif.2016.0363) review seems to treat them as orders (Fig 4), although not explicitly. They don't mention Notoptera and use Xenonomia for the clade of Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea. Likewise there is no mention of Notoptera in the Wipfler et al (2019, doi:10.1073/pnas.1817794116) study on Polyneoptera.

On the subject of Species Files, they are in the process of updating them to a newer format (using TaxonWorks). All the Species Files websites were frozen on 14 August 2023, pending the update. SF Mantophasmatodea is the only one updated so far (the old version is available as an archive. It's a definite improvement and may make it possible for them to integrate them is a single system. Fortunately, it looks like all the species files links will continue to work for the new sites. —  Jts1882 | talk  09:32, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Correction. SF Mantophasmatodea was the only Species File updated as of yesterday. Several others including cockroach have since been updated. —  Jts1882 | talk  10:08, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

While it's still only preprint right now, an article from 2021 claiming to resolve the 'Zoraptera problem' also appears to treat them as orders, and seems to treat Notoptera as just an unranked (?) clade instead. Also of note is the fact Engel is a co-author, but I don't know if that means he has changed his mind or not about their ranks. Monster Iestyn (talk) 11:30, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Engel is a coauthor, but not part of the main group doing the study, so I wouldn't take it as evidence of a change of position; he may just not have convinced his collaborators. However, it is further evidence that the proposal hasn't caught on. Most of the sources used in the articles use Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea as orders. A lot of the google results for Notoptera are derived from Wikipedia.

Until there is a new formal taxonomy of insects that we can use, I think we should use order for the Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea, but mention the alternative of these being suborders of order Notoptera prominently in the lede. —  Jts1882 | talk 

Cool then, that sounds like the best action for Grylloblattodea/idae and Mantophasmatodea/idae to me at least. What should happen with Notoptera then? It does seem like it's generally accepted these two orders (or suborders) are sister taxa, so Notoptera (= Xenonomia) could still be treated as a valid taxon or clade. But should it be treated as an unranked clade, or as a superorder following the Grylloblattodea Species File website (as of writing, that is)? Monster Iestyn (talk) 18:09, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882 Sorry to ping, wasn't sure if you saw my last question here from a week ago about Notoptera. Monster Iestyn (talk) 16:55, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Sorry, I meant to reply, but wanted to check use of superorder or unranked on other similar insect groups (there are inconsistencies). I'd keep Notoptera as a page, mentioning Xenomia as an alternative. Maybe a page move will be warranted in future. The old, now archived version of SF Grylloblattodea uses superorder, but I don't think the new version does. Unfortunately, the site is down at the moment. I suggest using superorder for now, as we can link to the archived version. —  Jts1882 | talk  06:20, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

 Done There, Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea should now be treated as orders across English Wikipedia (mostly), and Notoptera as a superorder, though I'm not entirely satisfied with my efforts to be honest. Monster Iestyn (talk) 17:55, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882: the new version of SF Grylloblattodea is working now, and it still uses superorder rank for Notoptera. Monster Iestyn (talk) 17:40, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council § Determining the future of B-class checklists. This project is being notified since it is one of the 82 WikiProjects that opted-in to support B-checklists (B1-B6) in your project banner. DFlhb (talk) 11:46, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

As mentioned above the Species Files websites are in the process of being updated to a newer format (using TaxonWorks). All the Species Files websites were frozen on 14 August 2023, pending the update. Only a few of the new sites are currently available, e.g. SF Mantophasmatodea (the old version is available as an archive), SF Cockroach, SF Zoraptera, SF Isoptera, etc.. The upgrade raises a number of issues that affect the Wikipedia insect pages:

• The links to taxon pages no longer work. The main site domain name is unchanged (although upgraded to https), but the rest of the urls have changed.
• The new site also uses new taxon IDs, so getting a bot to edit the urls is not an option.
• As the ids are different, the {{taxonbar}} links no longer work. I changed the Wikidata formatterURL for Cockroach Species File ID (old version) (P6052)}, which works if you manually update the id (e.g. see Blattidae), but it will need a bot on Wikidata to fix this on the other Wikidata taxon pages.

Maybe the concerns are premature as the upgrade is in progress. Perhaps they will add redirects for the old links. Anyway, I thought it worth raising. —  Jts1882 | talk  10:36, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

Update

• The following Species Files are now available in the new Taxonworks format: Zoraptera SF, Dermaptera SF, Grylloblattodea SF, Mantophasmatodea SF, Embioptera SF, Cockroach SF, Isoptera SF (revived after being deleted in 2020), Psocodea SF, Coleorrhyncha SF, Plecoptera SF, Orthoptera SF, Aphid SF
• The following are still in the frozen old state at their websites, but can be seen in preview on Github: Plecoptera SF, Orthoptera SF, Phasmida SF, Mantodea SF, Aphid SF, Coreoidea SF, Lygaeoidea SF
• The following look like they will be abandoned: SF Arthropoda, SF Polyneoptera and SF Paraneoptera
• In addition the 3i World Auchenorrhyncha Database] has been moved to the Taxonworks system: World Auchenorrhyncha Database

When the process is complete there will be Species Files databases for all the polyneopteran orders, as well Psocodea and parts of Hemiptera. Other parts of Hemiptera are covered by a different initiative at HemBases but only one of the seven databases is functional at present: Fulgoromorpha Lists On the Web. —  Jts1882 | talk  08:04, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

The orthoptera and aphid species files are now live in the new format. I have a table keeping track at User:Jts1882/Phylogeny_and_taxonomy_resources#Species_Files —  Jts1882 | talk  11:10, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Pharsalus#Requested move 14 November 2023 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. —usernamekiran (talk) 03:48, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

Following my rename of the article Endopterygota to Holometabola (see the discussion above), I've learned that multiple taxonomy templates need to be fixed to account for this change properly. There are some other taxonomy templates that need changing for other reasons, however, so I've listed them all here.

• Template:Taxonomy/Hymenopterida: parent should be Holometabola
• Template:Taxonomy/Coleoptera: parent should be restored to Coleopterida
• Template:Taxonomy/Panorpida: parent should be <Aparaglossata
• Template:Taxonomy/Neoptera: parent should be Pterygota, skipping the clade Metapterygota (the relationships of Odonata-Ephemeroptera-Neoptera are not resolved, per above discussion) (Monster Iestyn (talk) 03:29, 21 November 2023 (UTC))

Monster Iestyn (talk) 20:48, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

If we are following Kjer et al. 2016 (as we are at the Holometabola article) that source should be added to |refs= of the relevant taxonomy templates when the parents are changed. And Kjer should also be added as a source to all of the relevant articles (if the are better more recent sources for any subclades that contradict Kjer, those could be followed, but Kjer should probably still be mentioned as an alternative), with cladograms adjusted accordingly.

I see that at Panorpida the first cladogram is ostensibly following a 2005 source. The two cladograms at Panorpida#Antliophora are based on a 2022 source, with one of the cladograms largely consistent with the 2005 source (Siphonaptera embedded in paraphyletic Mecoptera), and the other consistent with Kjer (Siphonaptera sister to Mecoptera). Kjer is not a source in the Panorpida article. In this case we should probably have an Antliophora article (it's currently a redirect) to discuss the relationship of Siphonaptera and Diptera.

Panorpida has a (small) problem. More broadly, cladograms should be checked against sources, sources should be added to taxonomy templates, and child articles/taxonomy templates should be sourced and checked for consistency with parents. Plantdrew (talk) 02:27, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

@Plantdrew: Apologies for the late reply, but I've been attempting to make sense of Panorpida's first two cladograms... they do appear to be partially following Grimaldi and Engel 2005 in that Hymenoptera is considered to be sister to Panorpida, rather than to Panorpida+Neuropteroidea (=Aparaglossata) as in Kjer and most other recent articles. However I don't quite understand where "Mecopteroidea" comes from exactly? Grimaldi and Engel (page 468, start of chapter 12) mention it only in passing, while saying they use Mecopterida in a more restrictive sense than Panorpida.

Checking page history, I notice that banned user/sockpuppet Quilt1 first added "Mecopteroidea" to Panorpida's cladogram in August 2020 with no explanation, Chiswick Chap repeatedly removed their edits, then earlier this year WikiCleanerMan re-added Quilt1's version of the cladogram but as a separate one to the one already there?? Quilt1 also added "Mecopteroidea" to the cladograms present in the articles Hymenoptera and Nannochoristidae, also in August 2020, and somehow that survived on those despite being added with no explanation in the first place. Other articles such as Pterygota and Neuropterida suggest that "Mecopteroidea" is a synonym of Antliophora, but this must be a different sense of "Mecopteroidea"? Monster Iestyn (talk) 19:00, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

I'm not sure. Plantdrew (talk) 21:41, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Well I can solve one small part of this mess. I've removed the first, surplus cladogram from the lead (?) of Panorpida – all of it was redundant to the other cladograms in the article, so the "Mecoperteroidea" has gone with it. The Antliophora discussion in that article (that's a redirect to Panorpida) is cited only to Meusemann et al 2020, it sounds as if Kjer ought to be cited there also. I quite understand why people make composite cladograms but they really are easier to verify if they come from a single source. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:34, 30 November 2023 (UTC)

Well shit. Template:Taxonomy/Hymenopterida has had parent changed. No offense meant to Monster Iestyn. Hymenopterida has one cladogram sourced to a 2005 book and tolweb (which AFAIK hasn't had updates in well over a decade and calls the parent Endopterygota not Holometabola). The other cladogram is sourced to Kjer (OK), but Kjer has no room for a node for Hymenopterida that wouldn't be a synonym of Endopterygota/Holometabola (maybe there's a paleontologicaly inclusive framework following Kjer with room for Hymenopterida, but being paleontologically inclusive is a huge headache). I really don't mean to derail an attempt to get insect classification abover orders standardized, but it is looking to be complicated. Plantdrew (talk) 02:57, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

Sorry, that's on me, I initially was asking the user who renamed the template for Endopterygota to Holometabola to also update Hymenopterida ...then Coleoptera, then I realised it was better to make a list here. Monster Iestyn (talk) 02:59, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

As for Panorpida, Kjer does give the clade but under its alternative name, Mecopterida ...is there any consensus which name that clade should have? Monster Iestyn (talk) 03:17, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

I've added a source for the recircumsribed Hymenopterida (to article and template). The restricted superorder is also used in the Systema Naturae 2000 classification. —  Jts1882 | talk  09:05, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

I've updated Coleoptera and Neoptera as above. According to Kjer at al, Panorpida should be Aparaglossata, as Neuropteroidea is Neuropterida+Coleopterida. Is there a reason why Aparaglossata was crossed out and replaced by Neuropteroidea, e.g. a new source? —  Jts1882 | talk  10:39, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882: Whoops, I re-read Kjer's tree again later and somehow came to the wrong conclusion in my haste, I think. Monster Iestyn (talk) 11:17, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

Anyway, I think we should use Mecopterida. It's used in the reviews by Kjer et al (2016) and Engel & Kristensen (2013; doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-120811-153536), where the latter refer to Mecopterida as the "panorpoid orders". Mecopterida was also used by Kristensen (1998) and Whiting (2004; Table 21.2, p348), so it has a history of usage. —  Jts1882 | talk  11:44, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

@Monster Iestyn: I've changed the parent of Panorpida to Aparaglossata as requested. —  Jts1882 | talk  17:42, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882: Thanks! Monster Iestyn (talk) 20:01, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Hi, I've recently happened to notice that Pterygota seems somewhat internally inconsistent: according to its taxobox, Ephemeroptera (mayflies) are sister to a clade Metapterygota (Odonata (dragonflies) and Neoptera), but the article text uses a classification where Ephemeroptera and Odonata are placed in a clade/infraclass Palaeoptera separate to Neoptera. These can't both be right, surely?

I looked up further and a number of sources from a decade ago or more (e.g. , , and ) say the relationships between Ephemeroptera, Odonata and Neoptera are unresolved, and that there are three hypotheses for the relationships between these groups (Palaeoptera, Metapterygota and Chiastomyaria), two of which are actually being represented in the Pterygota article. Some of the sources I linked helpfully provide diagrams explaining the three, but come to different conclusions in some cases.

So, I must ask, since I may be reading outdated articles here: anyone happen to know if this particular problem has since been resolved at last, or is this still up for debate currently? Should the Pterygota article be rewritten to explain these neutrally, rather than favouring one (or rather, two at once as currently written)? Monster Iestyn (talk) 22:35, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

It's probably still unresolved. I think the best review of overall insect phylogeny is Kjer et al (2016; doi:10.1098/rsif.2016.0363), with Fig 5 being particulaly useful. While that review is getting a bit dated, I haven't seen anything that changes the overall picture. A more recent study (Wipfler et al 2019; doi:10.1073/pnas.1817794116) provides some support for Palaeoptera, but the focus for their study was Polyneoptera. In my opinion, the taxobox shouldn't pick a hypothesis and should treat them as unresolved. There needs to be a choice for what phylogeny to show, but the text can explain the alternative hypotheses.

Another issue is the use of Exopterygota and Endopterygota in the taxobox and the text. Exopterygota is certainly paraphyletic and while Endopterygota is monophyletic, Holometabola has been the preferred name for some time. How to split Exoptergota is also still incertain. Polyneoptera seems monophyletic (see Kjer et al 2o16 and Wipfler et al 2019), but Paraneoptera (more properly Acercaria, see Appendix in Kjer et al 2016) may not be, with the position of Psocodea being uncertain. The Paraneoptera article shows the alternatives.—  Jts1882 | talk  07:55, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882: I see, thanks, I'll just assume that it's still unresolved then and try to rework the article with that assumption. Monster Iestyn (talk) 16:34, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882: While I'm at it, I'm going to get the ball rolling with renaming Endopterygota to Holometabola at last, because I can see it's long overdue. Though, do you think it's uncontroversial enough that I could just be WP:BOLD and rename it? Otherwise I'll start a move discussion. Monster Iestyn (talk) 17:14, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Check the talk page Talk:Endopterygota. I asked the question a year ago and someone asked it 12 years before. I think it's uncontroversial. It needs a page move over the redirect, otherwise I'd probably have moved it. —  Jts1882 | talk  17:51, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882: Fair enough. I have page mover rights so I can do it, doesn't even need a page swap since the redirect doesn't have any history beyond its creation. Monster Iestyn (talk) 18:26, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882: There, it is done, Holometabola is now the name of the article. Annoyingly though, I am unable to rename or edit Template:Taxonomy/Endopterygota, so I've made a technical request for a requested move, as well as a request to rename Category:Endopterygota. Monster Iestyn (talk) 19:10, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Just to note that if Y is now the accepted name for the taxon previously known as X, then the preferred way of fixing the taxonomy templates is by:

• creating "Template:Taxonomy/Y"
• using |same_as=Y in "Template:Taxonomy/X"

Among other advantages, this allows |refs= to be used to support the synonymy. Peter coxhead (talk) 22:56, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: Thanks, though a little late, Template:Taxonomy/Endopterygota has already been renamed to Template:Taxonomy/Holometabola earlier. What I need now is help to update several more protected taxonomy templates (see below), since I do not have rights to edit any of them. Monster Iestyn (talk) 23:39, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Okay, it's been a while since I left an update here... I appear to have been sidetracked a bit from my original plan to update the Pterygota article, instead being involved in updating the taxonomy or phylogenies of higher insect groups more generally. (Whoops) In any case, I've recently looked through the page histories of Pterygota and Exopterygota and found that the "Systematics" sections in each have essentially been unchanged since Dysmorodrepanis wrote them in 2007, porportedly to streamline them with the systematics of the Insect article at the time? It's no wonder they look highly out of date. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Monster Iestyn (talk • contribs) 17:17, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

After an unintended Wiki-editing hiatus, I just got back in and did my "thing"--I saw that the category Myrmeciinae contained 90+ species in the genus Myrmecia. So I created a category Myrmecia. And now that I've migrated about 70 of those 90+ species, I wonder if I should have called the category "Myrmecia (ant)" to correspond to the article on the genus. Searching just the term Myrmecia gets a disambiguation page; among other things, there's also a genus of algae called Myrmecia (although it doesn't have a category; there's only the article on the genus). Uporządnicki (talk) 10:21, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

It would probably have been better to match the category to the genus page title, but I don't think it necessary to change it. Neither of the other articles are likely to need a category: the skin condition won't have child articles that need categorisation and the genus of algae only has nine recognised species, none of which have articles., and even if they were all created they'd likely to be put in a higher category. —  Jts1882 | talk  12:42, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Oh, good. I hope nobody comes in to disagree. I'm willing to go through and change it all, but I'd rather not. I'll be more careful next time. Uporządnicki (talk) 13:30, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

@AzseicsoK: there are some editors who strongly feel that category names should match the main article title's disambiguation, even if no other topics would merit a category (one case I saw was a genus that was disambiguated against an alternative name of a minor Greek diety; any category for the diety would just use the more common name for the diety, but the genus category ended up getting moved to a disambiguated name). If a category gets moved to a different name following a CfD, a bot will move the articles in the category.

If you're doing a lot of categorization work, you should know about Help:Cat-a-lot, a script which makes it easy to move many articles between categories. I haven't used it much myself, but as far as I'm aware it won't let you add sortkeys. However it would make it very easy to move all the articles from "Myrmecia" to "Myrmecia (ant)" if you decided to do so. Plantdrew (talk) 20:21, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

I'll echo Jts's comment too. You're probably fine as-is with the ants seemingly being the most predominant topic, and if someone really wants to justify a change, they can work through that. I'd say you made a good-faith and reasonable effort on this, though as Plantdrew alludes to, there can sometimes be variable opinions on categories that still can catch anyone off guard at times. I wouldn't worry too much at this point. KoA (talk) 20:41, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

@Plantdrew: @KoA: No, no, I acknowledge, I made a mistake! I knew, as a rule, it should be that way, but I didn't notice the detail here until it was about done. And I'm a stickler for details; no sooner have I finished creating a category and populating it with 90+ items (one at a time), than I'm setting out to add sortkeys to about 150 of another bunch of ants--just so the whole page doesn't alphabetize to "D." I was just hoping it was forgivable, this time. Uporządnicki (talk) 01:27, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Could anyone please make the stub template for hemiptera clear? Personally, I feel like it is confusing. Thanks! PrathuCoder (talk) 16:51, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

@PrathuCoder: are you talking about {{Hemiptera-stub}}? What exactly is unclear? Basically, that stub template shouldn't be used since there are stub templates for each of the suborders (while {{Coleorrhyncha-stub}} puts articles into Category:Hemiptera stubs, it could be made to populate Category:Coleorrhyncha stubs instead). Plantdrew (talk) 17:51, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Oh, thanks! PrathuCoder (talk) 23:09, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Under this WikiProject, there are 5 unassessed articles according to the servers as of Jan 9th. I assessed Diura chronus and Cyrtolobus dixianus. There are 3 other articles, which link to other wikis and are not Wikipedia articles. Is it supposed to be that way or does it have to be fixed? Thanks! PrathuCoder (talk) 23:23, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

There have been some recent changes to how assessment of redirects works. I guess the interwiki redirects are an edge case that didn't get addressed when the changes were made. That needs to be fixed somewhere, but there's nothing you can do about it now by editing the talk page banners of those three articles.

Changes to assessment of redirects is also why there are now 1,536 articles categorized as Redirects with Low importance. Early on, class=redirect had to be specified. For awhile, redirects were automatically detected and classified as Redirect-Class if the class parameter was left blank. In the most recent changes, redirects are automatically detected and classified as redirects overriding any value in a non-blank class parameter. Plantdrew (talk) 01:29, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

I noticed that in the ants task force, task 5 is not mentioned. I'm planning to make the task to be expanding all subfamily articles to at least start-class. Is that good? Thanks. PrathuCoder (talk) 22:28, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Sure. Or not. It took me a minute to realize you were talking about Wikipedia:WikiProject_Insects/ant_task_force#Tasks_by_subfamily. The table of tasks that are done or undone isn't up to date (Proceratiinae genus articles have all been created). I don't see much point in adding tasks to track when we are not keeping up to date with tasks that are already tracked. There's plenty to do with the tasks that are tracked, and if I was going to recommend another task it would be to check that taxonomy sourced to AntCat was up to date and update the date that AntCat was checked (Proceratiinae cites AntCat as of July 2014, but is still consistent with AntCat as of January 2024). Plantdrew (talk) 04:05, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

Ok sure, I'll follow your advice with that task. I'll also check and update everything on the tasks by subfamily table. Thanks! PrathuCoder (talk) 18:35, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

I didn't find that many AntCat references, so I changed Task 5 to my own suggestion. PrathuCoder (talk) 17:55, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Armaniinae is mentioned as a subfamily in the Template:Ant Taxonomy, list of ant subfamilies and on antcat. However, Armaniinae is a redirect to Armaniidae which apparently is its own family. Which is right? Thanks! PrathuCoder (talk) 16:55, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Neither is absolutely right as it depends on the classification. There is another recent classification that includes Armaniinae genera in Sphecomyrminae (Borysenko, 2017), although Barry Bolton on AntCat is unconvinced (see Armaniinae). Generally, I think we are following AntCat for ants. We need to choose one classification for determining what gets an article and what goes in the taxobox, but the alternatives should be discussed in the text. —  Jts1882 | talk  17:52, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

@Jts1882 Ok. Should I add Armaniinae to the list of tasks by subfamily table in the Ants Task Force? PrathuCoder (talk) 17:54, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

I think this needs a decision on whether to use Armaniidae or Armaniinae for the article. The article covers the alternatives so only needs slight modification if it is to be moved to the subfamily, which I think it should. However, let's wait and see if anyone else has an opinion. —  Jts1882 | talk  18:01, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Ok. Thanks! PrathuCoder (talk) 18:04, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

We should go with the Antcat/Antweb placement, as stem-group subfamily is the more frequently taken stance in papers over the last 5 years now.--Kevmin § 18:26, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Sure. Looks like @Kevmin already did the move. PrathuCoder (talk) 20:38, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

I've reworded the lede and part of the taxonomy section to reflect the page move. However, some of the references need double checking that they still support the text as written. —  Jts1882 | talk  13:03, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Hello, in the Ants Task Force, under Todo there are quite a few articles with the template "done". I'm considering deleting them as it appears they don't serve any purpose anymore. Is there a reason I shouldn't, and the templates are still there? Thanks. PrathuCoder (talk) 01:38, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

I think you should remove anything marked "done". Plantdrew (talk) 17:35, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Done. PrathuCoder (talk) 23:21, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

A shortcut to the Hymenoptera Task Force would be helpful, like how the Ants Task Force has WP:ANTS as a shortcut. WP:HYMENOPTERA or WP:HYMEN would be good. Thanks! PrathuCoder (talk) 00:30, 31 January 2024 (UTC)

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Cyrtophleba#Requested move 9 February 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. UtherSRG (talk) 12:23, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

The websites for COOL hemiptera databases have changed. They have been buggy or completely non-functional for months, but now they are functional again. I've updated the wikidata identifier items for the {{taxonbar}} for four of the databases:

• FLOW ID (P6096)} for Fulgoromorpha Lists On the Web (Q58011838)
• The White-files species ID (P6347)} for The White-files (Q60332065) (Aleyrodoidea)
• Psyl'list species ID (P6376)} for Psyl'list (Q60535830) (Psylloidea)
• COOL species ID (P6408)} for Cercopoidea Organised On Line (Q60690204)

However there are many citations where the url needs changing. Fortunately they have kept the same IDs (unlike the new species files). The new urls are of the form:

• https://flow.hemiptera-databases.org/XXXXXX?db=YYYYYY&page=explorer&lang=en&card=taxon&rank=species&id=$1 where XXXXXX is flow, whiteflies, psyllist or cool and YYYYYY is flow, aleurodes, psylles or cool.

There are a variety of old style urls, but the most common seems to be of this form:

• http://www.hemiptera-databases.com/psyllist?db=psylles&lang=en&card=taxon&rank=species&id=$1

The needed changes to the url are from http://www.hemiptera-databases.com to https://flow.hemiptera-databases.org and addition of &page=explorer. —  Jts1882 | talk  13:56, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Asiatic rhinoceros beetle#Requested move 28 February 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 18:26, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

See discussion at Commons. (While this isn't necessarily just a problem for insect photos, the misidentified photos I've found so far are all of insects.) Monster Iestyn (talk) 18:34, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

See for instance and (the latter is a ZooKeys article published today). This means that the following articles (among other things) will have to be renamed and updated:

• Silphidae → Silphinae
  • Nicrophorinae → Nicrophorini (Edit: Oh, my mistake, it's already named Nicrophorini but as the only tribe of the subfamily Nicrophorinae? Weird, but oh well. Monster Iestyn (talk) 22:47, 8 May 2024 (UTC) )
  • Silphinae → Silphini
    • Necrodini → Necrodina
    • Silphini → Silphina

Monster Iestyn (talk) 22:44, 8 May 2024 (UTC)

Catalogue of Life recognises Nicrophorini < Silphinae < Staphylinidae, giving Staphbase as the source. The online version of Staphbase doesn't seem to be maintained but the editors are the authors of the new Zookeys article. CoL introduced a Staphbase classification in early 2022 with Nicrophorinae in Silphidae (see this deleted record; presumably based on the old Staphbase) and replaced it later that year. This seems a case where the source database uses CoL without its own online presence.

I've updated the Nicrophorini article to be on the tribe, explain the changed taxonomy, converted the taxobox to the automated system, updated the genera, and added a new Wikidata item for the tribe to the taxonbar.

The revised classification doesn't subdivisde Silphini into subtribes. In my opinion we need these changes:

• Silphidae → Silphinae
  • Nicrophorinae → Nicrophorini  Done
  • Silphinae → Silphini
    • Necrodini and Silphini to redirects.

If we convert the old Silphinae tribes to subtribes we'd need a new source. —  Jts1882 | talk  10:20, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

@Jts1882 The Scientific Reports article I linked mentions downgrading the former tribes to subtribes Necrodina and Silphina, though it is curious that they are not used in the main sources for the new classification (Cai et al. (2022), Bouchard et al. (2024), etc.). Monster Iestyn (talk) 12:23, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused by that Scientific Reports article (Růžička et al, 2023). In the introduction they say that as a consequence to the changes proposed by Cai et al, namely the downgrading of Nicrophorinae and Silphinae to tribes, the Necrodini and Silphini should be downgraded to subtribes. This is followed by a sentence saying "This classification is followed further in the text." The next paragraph says that "Silphina is paraphyletic with respect to Necrodina" (I assume this is using the downgraded classification). They then point out that Thayer and Newton[24] synonymised Necrodina with Silphini and that this was followed in the classification of Sikes[17,25], Růžička[14] and Newton[22]. Their own results confirm the paraphyly of Silphina with respect to Necrodina and they don't discuss it further. I don't think they retain the subtribes. —  Jts1882 | talk  14:01, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

@Jts1882 ...I see what you mean, I didn't honestly read that far down into it. It was literally just the first source I found even mentioning downranking the former tribes to subtribes, which was maybe rather hasty of me. On second thoughts then, it seems best not to have those subtribes after all, yeah. Monster Iestyn (talk) 14:43, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

This is a request because not all of us are interested in all insects and many of us are confined to one or more groups. it may help organise things better, too. Uploader1234567890 (talk) 16:40, 12 May 2024 (UTC)

There are separate WikiProject for three of four largest orders (beetles, Lepidoptera and Diptera), and a task force for the fourth (Hymenoptera). There are also WikiProject for two smaller orders (Mantodea and Phasmatodea). Lepidoptera is the only one that ever really had an active talk page. The talk page for WikiProject Insects itself isn't particularly active. While there are a lot of articles about insects, there aren't a lot of active editors working on insect articles. It's better to have discussion in one centralized place rather than scattered across a couple dozen subprojects. Plantdrew (talk) 16:54, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

Ok. Uploader1234567890 (talk) 04:38, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

I would like to know: The exact island where Pyrops jefferyi is found on. Exact island on which Scamandra agnes and shiinae are found on. Details about Pyrops ochracea and its distribution Uploader1234567890 (talk) 14:28, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

See the map at https://flow.hemiptera-databases.org/flow/?page=explorer&db=flow&lang=en&card=taxon&rank=species&id=17232 for Scamandra agnes (Lesser Sunda Islands, but not exact islands) and https://flow.hemiptera-databases.org/flow/?page=explorer&db=flow&lang=en&card=taxon&rank=species&id=17236 for Scamandra shiinae (Sumatra).  —  Jts1882 | talk  17:14, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I am looking for the exact island. For shiinae I wonder whether it is from mentawai islands. Uploader1234567890 (talk) 06:04, 26 May 2024 (UTC)

Unfortunately Nagai & Porion 2004 is not available on the web so you'd need to find a library or purchase the book (e.g. here. Alternatively, the holotype is at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Lyon, but they don't have an online catalogue. The exact location might not be available as the FLOW website says Sumatra with no further information and I assume they have access to Nagai & Porion 2004. You could try emailing Thierry Bourgoin at FLOW (email in the contact page). —  Jts1882 | talk  08:12, 26 May 2024 (UTC)

((...I assume that they have access to Nagai & Porion 2004...))

Funny thing, you may assume that he does have those papers but the truth is not. If you want to inspect on this, then see this paper, and then the notes I have given below in this comment:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280083896_Review_of_the_effusus_group_of_the_Lanternfly_genus_Pyrops_Spinola_1839_with_one_new_species_and_notes_on_trophobiosis_Hemiptera_Fulgoromorpha_Fulgoridae (Page 3)

On page 3, It is written as follows:

"Nagai & Porion 1996 ... They synonymized dimotus and sapphirinus with cyanirostris ..."

I have no recent paper published after their works revising their status. So why aren't they synonyized on FLOW?

Another proof that they had synonized sapphirinus is here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/35993029

There in the notes it's written:

"...I follow Nagai & Porion 1996, who synonomized Pyrops sapphirinus with P. cyanirostris..."

I hope you understand. If you know some Wikipedia who does have all 3 (1996, 2002 and ) Uploader1234567890 (talk) 10:26, 26 May 2024 (UTC)

Over on Wikipedia talk:Notability‎, several editors are working on a draft proposal to replace our current notability guidelines for species (all species are notable) with something much more restrictive (only species that go beyond certain limited pieces of information would be allowed their own articles). If you have opinions on this issue, now would be a good time to weigh in there. —David Eppstein (talk) 00:20, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

I've made a proposal to add nine new Species Files identifiers to Wikidata so they can be added to {{taxonbar}}s. The new Species Files cover the polyneopteran orders Zoraptera, Dermaptera, Plecoptera, Grylloblattodea, Mantophasmatodea, Embioptera and "Isoptera", as well as hemipteran groups Aphidomorpha and Coleorrhyncha.

Please contribute to the discussion at d:Wikidata:Property_proposal/Identifiers_for_Species_Files_databases. I think support has to be added to each proposal separately. —  Jts1882 | talk  15:40, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

@Dyanega: Thank you for supporting my proposal for the new Wikidata identifiers for the new Species Files databases. Unfortunately, the way I set up the proposal with one general section and nine individual identifier proposals was not the appropriate way. The general section where you added your support (at d:Wikidata:Property_proposal/Identifiers_for_Species_Files_databases) has been removed from proposal page (at d:Wikidata:Property_proposal/Natural_science. After AdamSeattle added support for four of the proposals, identifiers were created (Zoraptera Species File taxon ID (P12753), Dermaptera Species File taxon ID (P12750), wdp|P12751}} and Isoptera Species File taxon ID (P12752)), but that still leaves proposals for the Plecoptera, Grylloblattodea, Mantophasmatodea, Aphid and Coleorrhyncha Species Files needing support by someone other than me.

In addition I've created a proposal for a new Orthoptera Species Files identifier to use the new IDs in the updated database. I don't know if they will prefer a new identifier or to get a bot to update the >30,000 wikidata items using the old SF database. I'll see what happens with this proposal before creating proposals for others that have been updated.  —  Jts1882 | talk  17:14, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

Nine new species files identifiers have been created: Dermaptera Species File taxon ID (P12750), Embioptera Species File taxon ID (P12751), Isoptera Species File taxon ID (P12752), Zoraptera Species File taxon ID (P12753), Aphid Species File taxon ID (P12767), Grylloblattodea Species File taxon ID (P12768), Mantophasmatodea Species File taxon ID (P12769), Plecoptera Species File taxon ID (P12770), and Coleorrhyncha Species File taxon ID (P12771). I don't know the timetable for when Wikidata will get populated with the data.

The remaining issue is with the species files that already had wikidata identifier, which have different id numbers in the updated database. The old ones now redirect to the archived sites, so I've suggested new identifiers for the updated identifier. I've created a new proposal for the Orthoptera Species File and if that is accepted I'll create the other proposals (for Phasmida, Mandodea, cockroach, Psocodea, Lygaeoidea and Coreoidea).  —  Jts1882 | talk  15:47, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

@Dyanega and AdamSeattle: Identifier Orthoptera Species File taxon ID (new) (P12785) has been created for new version of the Orthoptera Species File.

I've now created proposals for the other four species files with existing identifiers that have been updated, which need support:

• d:Wikidata:Property proposal/Lygaeoidea Species File taxon ID
• d:Wikidata:Property proposal/Psocodea Species File taxon ID
• d:Wikidata:Property proposal/Cockroach Species File taxon ID
• d:Wikidata:Property proposal/Phasmida Species File taxon ID

That will complete the IDs for the new Taxonworks Species Files. There are two others under development with previews on GitHub but they are not live yet. —  Jts1882 | talk  12:02, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

All the Species Files that have been updated to TaxonWorks now have new Wikidata identifiers that will appear in {{taxonbar}}. It may take some time for a bot to populate Wikidata. Two more Species Files are pending an update and have developmental version on GitHub, but are not live yet.

I've also created {{cite speciesfile}}, which is a citation template that wraps {{cite web}} and will automatically add website and editors parameters.  —  Jts1882 | talk  12:00, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

For Microhodotermes viator; I can't find a physical description anywhere beyond these body length figures. ꧁Zanahary꧂ 13:12, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

@Zanahary:, there's a description (as Hodotermes viator) starting on the bottom of this page . There's quite a bit more about it on the 9 previous pages (mostly discussing it in relation to similar species, but also including Latreille's original description (in French)). Plantdrew (talk) 17:56, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Greetings, Since this topic I know very little about, I'm hoping for expert here. Both articles need at least one incoming link in order to remove the Orphan tag.

• Brachytemnus, for this one, it says family Staphylinidae
• Bryophacis, I found List of Curculioninae genera, but have no knowledge if Bryophacis can be added there, or how to add correctly.

Thanks for helping improve these two articles. Regards, JoeNMLC (talk) 19:17, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

 Done - JoeNMLC (talk) 23:48, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

There is a dispute over whether the lead image of the Insect article should be a single species of insect or should be a gallery of multiple insect species (e.g. ). Please participate at Talk:Insect#Lead_image_redux if interested. Thanks. Hemiauchenia (talk) 07:32, 6 August 2024 (UTC)