User talk:Invertzoo/Archive 27

This is an archive of past discussions about User:Invertzoo. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 20

←

Archive 25

ARCHIVE PAGE 27: March 2010

nudibranchs and predation

Hi Invertzoo, I hope 2010 is going well with you so far? Just a quick one: I see you have added a note on Melibe to the extent that they are predatory. Almost all nudibranch are carnivores, which in my view means they are predatory by definition. Most of them, though, being slow moving, either prey on sessile invertebrates or else on equally slow moving prey. Does this conflict with your definition of predation?

best wishes Seascapeza (talk) 05:29, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi Seascapeza, that's a very good point. Really, thank you very much for pointing it out to me! I wrote that last night when I was sleepy and was not thinking carefully enough. Yes almost all nudibranchs are predators. I must change this for Melibe. I guess perhaps I can say that although the majority of nudibranchs are predatory, most of them graze on sessile animals such as bryozoans, sponges, tunicates and so on, whereas these nudibranchs actually capture their prey, which is active, free-swimming animals, small crustaceans. Is that OK do you think? Do you maybe have a suggestion for how to say this? You know a lot more about nudibranchs than I do. Best wishes, Invertzoo (talk) 13:48, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi Invertzoo, I had a look at the wiki article on predation and saw that their view is that it includes even herbivores, which was news to me! I guess I have an old-fashioned view of predation as something which happens among animals only, but clearly I need to re-think. However, I think perhaps it might be better if you said something along the lines of: while most nudibranchs are carnivores, their usual prey is sessile or slow-moving such as sponges etc, while Melibe is an active predator which traps fast moving free-swimming animals such as small crustaceans in its extendable hood... see this web link for some great images of the genus in action: http://images.google.co.za/images?q=melibe&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=UCeJS-vCH8iQjAe9q-yYBg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CB8QsAQwAw

I'd also take issue with 'grazing' as a verb because shouldn't that only be reserved for eating plants? I find that a lot of people tend to be unaware of the fact that many marine animals are sessile and see them as plants, which is regrettable.

best wishes to you Seascapeza (talk) 14:16, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

From my narrow perspective I would think that the word grazing is primarily applied to feeding on plants in a non-destructive manner (such that the plants are able to re-grow) but can also be applied to feeding on sessile animals, when the animal is not entirely consumed or killed, but can regrow. Perhaps when used in the second sense it should be used in quote marks. I agree with you that predation seems like a really weird word to apply to plants, although maybe I am old fashioned! Invertzoo (talk) 14:38, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, I checked with my trusty Oxford English Dictionary and they only apply grazing to plants.... although I see grazing includes feeding on animals provided they are not killed in the process. I am uncomfortable with this, but will bow to the editor who produced the article, since it is not, if you will excuse the horrible pun, my field. I do worry however that the use of the word encourages people to think that sessile animals are in fact plants, and therefore would prefer to use the verb 'prey' but I suspect that is a battle that I am unlikely to win.

best wishes to you Seascapeza (talk) 18:02, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes I do see what you mean. And imagining that all sessile marine organisms are "plants" is a common problem. As for predation, grazing etc, it seems that all of these familiar terms are perhaps now being redefined, but if the editors of the articles in question do not leave citations to back up these new usages then we should apply the citation-needed tag, and explain why on the talk page. Best, Invertzoo (talk) 19:10, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Aha! You are perfectly right on that one. Once I come up for air on my latest project I might just do exactly that!

Best wishes to you Seascapeza (talk) 06:07, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi Invertzoo

Just to let you know -- I had occasion to discuss predation with a marine biology professor and he told me that in fact the marine biological definition of predation is when an animal kills its prey, and that 'grazing' is when an animal feeds on but does not kill its prey... so as far as nudibranchs go, you were exactly correct in saying the Melibe is unusual in that it is a predator. There are a few other nudibranchs which are predators under this definition, killing other members of their group as prey, but they are definitely in the minority. Most nudibranchs 'graze' on their prey and don't kill it.

I'm still uncomfortable with using these words to describe what nudibranchs do --but maybe that's just because I am not admitting to myself I didn't understand what the definitions meant in the first place ;)

regards Seascapeza (talk) 03:37, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Discodoris orphan tags

Please allow me to remove them. AWB did that. I figured it knew best. I turned it off for the others. I don't want to make any extra work for you. Best, Anna Frodesiak (talk) 13:50, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
Done Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:39, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Paul Pelseneer

Hi, Susan. I just finished writing the biography of Paul Pelseneer, a Belgian malacologist. Could you check it and change it wherever necessary ? Thanks. JoJan (talk) 20:51, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

As you may already have noticed, I went through it and fixed it up a bit, my pleasure. Invertzoo (talk) 21:53, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Pteropod

Hi, Susan. I just finished writing the taxonomic history of an abandoned family-group name Pteropoda, relying much on the writings of Paul Pelseneer. As usual, can you give it a glance and change it wherever it is necessary ? Thanks. JoJan (talk) 18:33, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Poul Lange

On March 5, 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Poul Lange, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits your article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Materialscientist (talk) 00:06, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh well done, Susan, getting that to DYK. I think that was a good approach, positioning him as a Danish illustrator rather than as a New York designer! --Epipelagic (talk) 05:37, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

New gastropod articles

Bot updated today, so you have a first list to work on. Bot not really fixed however as it as just fooled into running the master list in reverse order. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 10:01, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Find results here. SunCreator (talk) 14:20, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Your welcome! Love your user pages. Seems you swim in calm waters. I'm glad Gastropods is a happy place to edit. SunCreator (talk) 03:44, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I don't have any method of nudging he bot as such. I did an the last hour resort the master list, which previous seem to have a positive effect. Like you I hope that Alex returns to ensure a smooth daily update. Best regards, SunCreator (talk) 14:55, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

After two days of being idle our mysterious bot have kicked into action today and with the sections being in alphabetical order finding out what it is doing may become clear. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 01:02, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Had User:Xenobot Mk V find a list of chess articles today, perhaps you are interested for it to find Gastropod articles. It's not an ongoing thing, but a one off that finds articles based on Category that are not tagged with your Wikiproject. Not a replacement to User:AlexNewArtBot, but still a worthwhile task. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 22:05, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Can you check Wikipedia:WikiProject_Gastropods/Category list. I've taken the categories from Category:Gastropods plus one exception of Category:Gastropod articles needing photos. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 22:01, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's it, check that the list includes the categories relevant to WikiProject Gastropods. I believe it does but I noticed on a talk page you are against snails being part Gastropods category and there is a cave snail category. Likewise is there anything that part of WikiProject Gastropods not included in Gastropods category? Quite unlikely I think, but thought I'd ask. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 22:54, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

- See User talk:Xenobot Mk V/requests#WP:GAST there may be some categories that weren't identified. –xeno^talk 23:11, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
  - All cleared up. 219 edits. I think the only one incorrect is Ostodes minor because it's in the Category:Ostodes but that is not correct(or is it???). Regards, SunCreator (talk) 00:51, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Wow that's fantastic SunCreator, thank you so much! I will start going through them all carefully tomorrow, one by one, because they all need a lot of clean up and updating. You just added 219 article to our project, well done! Goodness knows we would not have found them without your help. The Ostedes thing is one of those cases where a plant and an animal have an identical genus name. I will work out what is the best way to fix that, including the category thing, thanks. Best wishes, Invertzoo (talk) 01:42, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your note. It's really great to know that it was appreciated. Big smile. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 22:33, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

NYC Wikipedia Meetup Sunday, March 21

In the afternoon, we will hold a session dedicated to meta:Wikimedia New York City activities, review the recent Wikipedia Day NYC, plan for the next stages of projects like Wikipedia at the Library and Lights Camera Wiki, and hold salon-style group discussions on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, for example User:ScienceApologist will present on "climate change, alternative medicine, UFOs and Transcendental Meditation" (see the November meeting's minutes).

In the evening, we'll share dinner and chat at a local restaurant, and generally enjoy ourselves and kick back. And if the weather is good, we'll have a star party with the telescopes on the roof of Pupin Hall!

You can add or remove your name from the New York City Meetups invite list at Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Invite list.

To keep up-to-date on local events, you can also join our mailing list.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 15:22, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Gastropod article

Hey not a problem Invertzoo. To be honest, I am going in alphabetical order from the Global Names Index (containing 18~ million plus names) and I am creating articles for every potential genus/species possible. I actually came across a synonym of the species I made; I am still otherwise up to names that have the first two letters with "Aa". But having said that, it might be time I joined the WP:Tree of life project hey? :). I am sure gastropods/insects will be the majority of things I will be making anyway due to their incredibly large diversity and number so if I make a few more of them, I will be sure to be a part of the project. Cheers!Calaka (talk) 07:50, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Patrick Marshall

Hello, I would like to ask you if you could improve text of Patrick Marshall or alternatively we can leave it for wikiproject geology members. Have a nice reading. Thanks. --Snek01 (talk) 01:01, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

authority reference

Hello, it would be good not to add authority reference like this http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neactaeonina&action=historysubmit&diff=350780589&oldid=350780404 but rather between ref tags directly like this http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neactaeonina&action=historysubmit&diff=351480193&oldid=350780970 . --Snek01 (talk) 01:14, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you are absolutely right, it would be much better to do it that way! However, over the last 6 months I have been going through literally thousands of our gastropod stubs one after the other. I do not enjoy this task, but it very much needs doing, so I am doing it. I cannot spend more than a few minutes on each stub, or the task of doing them all will totally drive me nuts. I do go ahead and make a new genus stub whenever one is lacking in the Tree of Life structure, (in other words where we have some species articles but no corresponding genus article) but I try to do the new stub as fast as I possibly can. This not very good way of referencing is very fast indeed, so that is what I use. I am afraid someone else will have to clean up after me with this particular thing. Sorry. Best wishes, Invertzoo (talk) 12:58, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

OK, no problem. I see you were doing it your way, but uniformly. They are all available to found with searching for "Nomenclator Zoologicus info" phrase. I will improve them later because I enjoy searching for those old references. --Snek01 (talk) 14:01, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

OK, thanks Michal, that sounds good! Invertzoo (talk) 14:08, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

New Conus DYK?

I will try to make a "Did you know..." article Conus mediterraneus when stubs will be available and I will appreciate your cooperation. --Snek01 (talk) 14:01, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I will be happy to try to work on it, let me know as soon as the work is started. Invertzoo (talk) 14:08, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

One thing I have to say though Michal, is this: I will be going away for 3 weeks in 3 week's time, on April 14th, and when I am away I will hardly be on Wikipedia at all (maybe not at all). And before then I will be spending some time packing and preparing, because it is both a vacation and a field trip. And right now I am resting a lot because I hurt my knee a bit a few days ago. But other than that, yes I will be please to try to contribute to it as best as I can, so let me know. Invertzoo (talk) 19:19, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Another note on the same topic: by the way, the images that are in the Commons Category for Conus mediterraneus [1], well, three of them show 3 different views of one extremely beachworn shell, and the fourth image in that category is of a Strombus species. But maybe you can find one or more better images. Invertzoo (talk) 19:24, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Concholepas concholepas

Hi Susan, are you okay? It's been a while since we last spoke! Ok, maybe not that long. And here I was, looking for articles about C. concholepas, when I was surprised by a flood of papers on various aspects of the biology of this species. There is enough free access material for us to upgrade the article to B-class with relative ease, if we really want to! Would you be interested in helping me in this endeavor? Here are some of the articles and abstracts I could find:

Articles

Abstracts

FEED PREFERENCES OF NUCELLA CRASSILABRUM AND JUVENILE CONCHOLEPAS CONCHOLEPAS (GASTROPODA: MURICIDAE) FROM A ROCKY SHORE IN SOUTHERN CHILE

Best wishes! --Daniel Cavallari (talk) 18:42, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

A new tip: >>>>> Click for watchlist changes <<<<<

Given your reception to the last idea. Here is another to consider. For a quick no maintenance effort watchlist of Gastropods Top350(or there abouts) articles by quality just click the above link. You can copy that link to your user page, talk page, or any place to do an occasional check to see what's going on among the high quality articles in the Gastropod project. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 23:58, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Note from Enviromet

I see we always need a subject/headline for clarity...

Great seeing you at the meeting - though for so short a time.

I have just about finished a bunch of really interesting antimicrobial articles and will begin posting shortly. They are all properly formatted.

Two questions: How to create a dozen user pages? How to transfer user pages to the Germicidal section of copper in Wikipedia?

That's all I need to know at this point.

Thanks again for your good help!

Enviromet (talk) 18:07, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Australian flora and fauna

Hi Zoo,

I hope you are well, thanks for looking after me when I first started writing on Wikipedia. Lately I've written my 255th Wiki article. (After editing and re-writing many hundreds of others).

I am not a Wiki person, I am not a Wikipedian or a Wiki anything. I feel no loyalty to Wikipedia. Don't ask me to be a Wiki editor or a software person of Wikipedia. As this isn't me.

What I am is a person who loves the Australian flora and fauna. Who will search for interesting Australian organisms, wherever they may be.

However, I am grateful to Wikipedia to give me this opportunity to write about such wonderful Australian plants and animals. And I hope that others may read these words and look at the pictures.

kind wishes PETE xxx Poyt448 (talk) 10:16, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Gastropod identification

Hello, do we need some of small images from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/9/210/figure/F2?highres=y ? They seem to me to be rather random images from the family than the images of analyzed species. --Snek01 (talk) 17:22, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

If I may say so, I don't believe the images are random. Some of them are clearly incorrect, such as R. venosa, but I believe the author did try to represent those species (though they are poorly drawn, at best...!)--Daniel Cavallari (talk) 18:04, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the author got the two images next to Rapana venosa and Thais clavigera switched (!), the drawings should be be the other way around. However a fair number of the images are very sloppily drawn, like the Bolinus and the Cancellaria. Are you asking should we keep the images if we reproduce the cladogram? Or are you asking whether we need any of those small images so we can use them for something else? Because a few of the images are quite nice, such as the Haliotis, the real Rapana image and the Lophiotoma image. Best wishes, Invertzoo (talk) 19:09, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Drosera spatulata

Hi there, I saw your recent edit adding a photo. While I agree that it would be nice to have a photo of the flower on this page, the article text is too small to support another image. At this point, the photo is forced beneath the taxobox, which is undesirable. Putting it on the left is discouraged by WP:MOS#Images. I do plan to expand this article eventually (note that I've been working on this genus for a while, recently getting Drosera regia promoted to FA status and creating content, e.g. Drosera falconeri, to get rid of the red links at Taxonomy of Drosera) at which point the image would be suitable and necessary to illustrate the flower. But right now it simply doesn't fit. If you could undo your edit, I would appreciate it, and I promise to move this species closer to the top of my "to do" list. Cheers, Rkitko ^(talk) 18:45, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Re:Barnstar

Hi Susan, Thanks very much for the barnstar. It's the most colorful one I got till date. :) I am glad to be of help. This past few weeks, I had a lot of fun learning about the fascinating world of molluscs. I may be able to get some parts of the Gastropod project automated. Examples, a cleanup listing page, wall of recognized content and an all articles page for easy watchlisting. I will keep you posted. Regards, Ganeshk (talk) 03:46, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikilink to shell of planorbids

Hello, I try to add a note about planorbid shell with wikilink and as short as possible, example: Kessneria [2]. By the way, example like this [3] is bad: it is there 2x, and adding the same large section into all planorbid species is bad, when wikilink exist. --Snek01 (talk) 18:11, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Poul Lange

No reply regarding the image request. I only wrote to an art gallery asking for the email to be passed on to him. I couldn't get to his site because of blocks. I still can't. If you like the man's work, perhaps you should email requesting a photo. It works well. I have received about 14 out of 15 so far. It even works with really famous people if you write to their agent. I think only Mark Beaumont has yet to send an image. I will check my list. He wrote back and said he would "ask his people", but I guess he forgot. He's not very famous, but he was very busy riding his bike. He actually replied while on the (side of the) road. Have a lovely holiday! Don't sit under a coconut tree. I've had a close call that way -- twice! Regards, Anna Frodesiak (talk) 08:43, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Fata Morgana (mirage)

Hello! Your submission of Fata Morgana (mirage) at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Smallman12q (talk) 23:59, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. I would never ever learn all wikipedia policies :) I mean I have already learned something about POV/NPOV in I/P conflict articles, but POV in Fata Morgana (mirage)! It is something different :)--Mbz1 (talk) 00:18, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi Susan, I am sorry I moved the article to the main space without notifying you. I was sure that you finished your fixes long time ago, and I did not want to bother you. I see now, it was not the case, and you had to do lots of work in a hurry. Once again I am sorry. Best wishes.--Mbz1 (talk) 05:26, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Congo

Hello, I do not understand locality of Pyropelta oluae, Pyropelta sibuetae. deep-sea/river. I also do not understand word "cruise". --Snek01 (talk) 09:20, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, your comments helped. I have found also details (in different article). They were collected by cruises, in more detail by Remotely Operated Vehicles. That is crazy when authors will write unclear things (names of cruises only) in the abstract. --Snek01 (talk) 21:01, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

DYK for Patrick Marshall

On March 31, 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Patrick Marshall, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits your article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Calmer Waters 05:32, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you...and good trip

Thanks for your help again. Was involved in other things. I will be following your message and getting to posting the articles today/tomorrow. Much appreciated! Hope you have a great trip! Enviromet (talk) 17:56, 31 March 2010 (UTC)