Talk:Polistes major major

General Comments

The words with links to pages that do not exist were removed, such as the ones for Polistes major, Polistes major bonaccensis, etc. If there is not much information on a subtopic, perhaps it might be better to include all of the information on the subtopics under one general topic. For example, rather than having a sentence or two on the queen, worker, and drone subtopics, it might be better to describe them all together under description. That way, you can compare the descriptions and have the information flow better. Mayxac (talk) 05:48, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

More suggestions

Hey Zoe! Compliments on the relevance of your links: you included links to many important concepts and did not have any extraneous or irrelevant links. Try to use more active instead of passive voice. For example, “P. major major is recognized by its large size, reaching 17 to 22mm in length, carrying a wingspan of up to 45mm” can be restated as “One can recognize P. major major by its large size…” and “Members of a P. major major colony can be further identified by behaviors specific to a certain rank or class” can be restated as “One can further identify members of a P. major major colony by behaviors specific to a certain rank or class.” I’ve also changed “Nests are made by the queen” to “Queens are responsible for making the nests.” I then changed “The nests are anchored by a central pedicel or petiole” to “A central pedicel or petiole anchors the nest.” In addition, I changed “The nests can be located under the roofs rims, and window frames of houses” to “One can locate the nests under the roofs, rims, and window frames of houses.” In headings, only the first word and proper nouns need to be capitalized. For all titles except “Behavior,” “Communication,” “Diet,” and “Predators,” this needs to be changed. For example, “Interactions with Other Species” should be changed to, “Interactions with other species.” Nice hook in the beginning of the article about its nickname as the horse’s wasp, I thought that was really cool. I like how thoroughly cited the article is. However, some sections need more links and one section in particular has no links to other articles at all: the “Nest Care” section. There are certain words I would be very interested to have links to other pages for, especially “antennated,” “culverts,” “pedicel,” and “malaxate.” You can add more to the section, “Taxonomy and phylogeny,” by discussing the history of how this species was named. Who named it, and when? Were there any changes made to its name or classification over time? For the section, “Distribution and Habitat,” you can include a map of their distribution, and/or compare the distribution with the distribution of other local or regional wasps nearby. Carzhong (talk) 01:06, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

General Comments

Hi! Great job with the article but I have a few suggestions that I think would make your article much stronger. First of all I think that the first thing I noticed while going through your article was the lack of depth in the Predators section. Though you mentioned the predator species you failed to mention any other part of their behavior or interaction. Furthermore, your Human Importance section was lacking detail. Though you mentioned that it produced a venom and the names of the peptides, you failed to mention any impact these peptides had in humans or how it is important to us.

Overview

I added some information about the species' sting and venom so that it flows more smoothly to the "venom" information. --Dwjoanne (talk) 16:13, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Taxonomy

Any information on why the species was named P. major major? Also, I removed the hyperlinks on the names of other species mentioned because there was no external links on any of them. --Dwjoanne (talk) 16:13, 30 September 2014 (UTC) Valuable information to include can be the similarities of all Polistes major subspecies, as well as how P. major major can be differentiated from the other subspecies. Mayxac (talk) 05:48, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Description and Identification

Is there a morphological difference between a male and a female P. major major? How does its 'large' size contribute in its social behavior? Does it have any evolutionary advantage over other species? Why is the large size so significant? --Dwjoanne (talk) 16:13, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

I think the physical characteristics of the queen, workers, and drones should be included in this section rather than (or in addition to) their roles. For example, you can include coloring, size, and weight. You can also compare such characteristics within each caste or between species. For the nest subtopic, you can include how many individual wasps are in an average nest, the shape of the nest, etc. As for the location of the nests, it might be useful to include a general description of where their nests can be found, such as below ground or in trees, and then supplement this with your examples. Mayxac (talk) 05:48, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Queens

How are queens selected? Does she always construct a nest by herself? --Dwjoanne (talk) 16:13, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Drones

Why don't drones come back after they leave the nests? What do they do once they've left the nest? --Dwjoanne (talk) 16:13, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Distribution and Habitat

In the overview, it says that P. major major is found “on the Hispaniola Island and within Central America,” but in the distribution and habitat section, it says that they are also found in the United States and Spain. If the latter is true, you should generalize the places it is found in the overview or say that it is “commonly found” in those areas. Mayxac (talk) 05:48, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Colony Cycle

When does a new cycle begin? What is the duration of a cycle? --Dwjoanne (talk) 16:13, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

I think it would be better to include an average number for the females, males, larvae, etc. Having such a specific range is unneccessary detail, especially if they are for a few observed nests and other nests can have numbers far from this range. In the nest structure section, it says that nests are made by queens. However, there is no information about a queen beginning a colony in this section. It would be good to include who begins a colony and/or a colony cycle, when the other individuals become active, and the characteristics involved in each step of their cycle. Mayxac (talk) 05:48, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Behavior

For the communication section, what is a “Chavez colony?” Also, there are only a couple citations in the behavior section. It might be good to go back and make sure that proper citations are included, which will be beneficial for a reader who wants to do further research. Mayxac (talk) 05:48, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Predators

What kind of birds prey upon P. major major? It would be nice if these information were a little bit more specific. --Dwjoanne (talk) 16:13, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

References

It's nice that you hyperlinked the papers, but they also have to be properly sourced according to the rules of wikipedia, you need to add those in addition to the hyperlinks. Atkarp (talk) 21:56, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Suggestions for a very fine article

This is a very fine article, and technically accurate about the wasps. Sometimes the technical terms are hard for the ordinary reader to understand. The term malaxation was linked to an article on olive oil processing. I removed the Wikilink, but you should include the meaning of the word in plain English. There may be other terms which are too technical for the average reader, so include the term and the plain English, too. Answer me right here if you have any questions or comments. --DThomsen8 (talk) 19:23, 6 November 2015 (UTC)