User talk:FunkMonk/Archive 24

• The first Spooky Species Contest wrapped up this week. Two articles were promoted to Good Article as a result (Halloween darter and Deathwatch beetle) and three Did You Know hooks on Halloween were related to the contest (Halloween darter, skeleton frog, and Coffin Cave mold beetle. Two new articles were created, including Longan witches broom-associated virus and Boophis popi, the skeleton frog species that appeared at DYK.
• The 2020 Community Wishlist Survey is live (focusing on non-Wikipedia content projects), with two proposals so far for WikiSpecies. The Wikimedia Foundation will prioritize the top 5 proposals across all sister projects.
• The 2019 WikiCup has finally concluded, with Casliber taking home the bronze. The bulk of their points this round came from two Featured Articles: rock parrot and western yellow robin.

By request from another editor, this month I wrote an overview of ways that content is featured on Wikipedia. Below I have outlined some of the processes for getting content featured:

What is it: A way for articles to appear on the main page of Wikipedia. A short hook in the format of "Did you know...that ___" presents unusual and interesting facts to the reader, hopefully making the reader want to click through to the article

How it works: The DYK process has fairly low barriers for participation. The eligibility criteria are few and relatively easy to meet. Some important guidelines:

• To be eligible, article is either new (newly created or moved to mainspace), a 5x expansion, or passed a GA review. Its creation, expansion, or promotion to GA must have been in the past 7 days.
• Article must be long enough, with more than 1,500 characters of prose (this doesn't include embedded lists)
  • I find Shubinator's DYKcheck script useful in determining whether an article is eligible for nomination.

The process for creating the nomination is somewhat tedious. Instructions can be found here (official instructions) and here ("quick and nice" guide to DYK). Experience is the best teacher here, so don't be afraid to try and fail a few times. The last few DYK nominations I've done, however, have been with the help of SD0001's DYK-helper script, which makes the process a bit more streamlined (you create the template from a popup box on the article; created template is automatically transcluded to nominations page and article talk page)

Once your nomination is created and transcluded, it will need to be reviewed. The reviewer will check that the article meets the eligibility criteria, that the hook is short enough, cited, and interesting, and that other requirements are met, such as for images. If you've been credited with more than 5 DYKs, the reviewer will also check that you've reviewed someone else's nomination for each article that you nominate. This is called QPQ (quid pro quo). You can check how many credited DYKs you've had here to see if QPQ is required for you to nominate an article for DYK.

What it is: A peer review process to determine that an article meets a set of criteria. This adds a symbol to the top of the article. About 1 in 200 articles on Wikipedia is a GA.

How it works: You follow the instructions to nominate an article, placing a template on its talk page. Anyone can nominate an article—you don't have to be a major contributor, though it is considered polite to inform the major contributors that you are nominating the article. The article is added to a queue to await a review. In the ToL, it seems that reviews happen pretty quickly, thanks to our dedicated members. Once the review begins, the reviewer will offer suggestions to help the article meet the 6 GA criteria. Upon addressing all concerns, the reviewer will pass the article, and voilà! Good Article!

Advice to a first-time nominator: Look at other Good Articles in related areas before nominating. If you're unsure about nominating, consider posting to the talk page of your project to see what other editors think. You can also have a more experienced editor co-nominate the article with you.

What it is: An exhaustive peer review to determine that an articles meets the criteria. This adds a to the top of the article. About 1 in 1,000 articles on Wikipedia is a FA.

How it works: You follow the instructions to nominate an article, placing a template on its talk page. Nominated articles are usually GAs already. Uninvolved editors can nominate, though the article's regular editors should be consulted first. Several editors will come by offering feedback, eventually supporting or opposing promotion to FA. A coordinator will determine if there is consensus to promote the article to FA. For an editor's first FA, spot checks to verify that the sources support the text are conducted.

Advice to a first-time nominator: The Featured Article Candidate (FAC) process is a bit intimidating, but several steps can make your first one easier (speaking as someone who has exactly one). If you also did the GA nomination of the article, you can ask the reviewer for "extra" feedback beyond the GA criteria. You can also formally request a peer review and/or a copy edit from the Guild of Copy Editors to check for content and mechanics. First-time nominators are encouraged to seek the help of a mentor for a higher likelihood of passing their first FAC.

What it is: It took me a while to realize we even had GT and FT on Wikipedia, as they are not very common relative to GA and FA. Both GT and FT are collections of related articles of high quality (all articles at GA or FA, all lists at Featured List). GT/FT have to be at least 3 articles with no obvious gaps in coverage of the topic, along with other criteria. For GT, all articles have to be GA quality and all lists must be FL. For FT, at least half the articles must be FA or FL, with the remaining articles at GA.

How it works: Follow the nomination procedures for creating a new topic or adding an article to an existing topic. Other editors weigh in to support or oppose the proposal. Coordinators determine if there is consensus to promote to GT/FT.

Advice to a first-time nominator: There are very few GT/FT in Tree of Life (5 GT and 11 FT). Most of the legwork appears to be improving a cohesive set of articles to GA/FA.

Female apple maggot

• ... that the silk made by webspinners is produced from glands on their forelegs? (1 October)
• ... that falguera, a plant known from only one valley in Spain, is threatened by rock climbers and by road maintenance? (1 October)
• ... that the nudibranch Tritoniella belli is avoided by several predatory starfishes but is inefficiently preyed on by the sea anemone Isotealia antarctica? (5 October)
• ... that larvae of the drain fly can be found in trickling filter systems used to process sewage? (6 October)
• ... that the correct spelling of "liliifolia" in the name of the orchid Liparis liliifolia has been debated for decades? (7 October)
• ... that Polish entomologist Sergiusz Toll amassed a collection of about 8,000 bird eggs and 12,000 butterflies and moths while in Bydgoszcz? (10 October)
• ... that the female garden symphylan stores sperm in its mouth? (11 October)
• ... that adult apple maggot flies (example pictured) use their wing patterns defensively to mimic spiders? (15 October)
• ... that Hildegarde had a bat, a mouse and a shrew named in her honour? (16 October)
• ... that the naked-rumped tomb bat is among a number of species of bat that roost in different parts of the Karnak Temple Complex in Egypt? (17 October)
• ... that the cause of the decline in hornleaf riverweed, a foundation species in swift-flowing rivers in North America, is unclear? (18 October)
• ... that botanist Betty Flint continued research in a voluntary capacity at Lincoln University and Landcare Research until she was 100 years old? (23 October)
• ... that the gut bacteria of Drosophila subobscura can influence its mating behavior? (23 October)
• ... that the warehouse beetle usually develops within about two months, but may enter an active diapause and take two years? (24 October)
• ... that the nectar-rich flowers of the African locust-bean are visited by bats, dormice, and pottos? (25 October)
• ... that populations of the russet rice rat have been shown to have a monogamous mating system? (30 October)
• ... that infestations of the common plaster beetle have caused hygiene problems in a hospital? (31 October)
• ... that a tree at least 700 years old, reputedly planted by Robert the Bruce, was destroyed by an arson attack in 2004?
• ... that structural biologist Erica Ollmann Saphire traveled to Africa to observe rodents in the field in order to study how viruses like Ebola are spread? (31 October)
• ... that the Coffin Cave mold beetle may not actually be found in Coffin Cave? (31 October)
• ... that the skeleton frog Boophis popi can be identified by its bright red irises? (31 October)
• ... that the common name of the Halloween darter refers to the orange and black coloration that individuals develop during the breeding season? (31 October)

• The Wiki Science Competition has begun on Wikimedia Commons. Several flora and fauna images have already been uploaded (the image at left is my current favorite).

• NessieVL created a Decemberween contest to improve taxa related to winter holidays. Loopy30 is out to an early lead, but with the bonus system for page views, there's still time for GA writers to hit a couple of home runs on some of the bigger articles like reindeer and mistletoe.
• Though it didn't make it onto the main page in time for Halloween, Satanic nightjar made a splash nevertheless, cracking the list of non-lead DYK hooks with at least 15,000 views. The article was viewed nearly 17,000 times while on the main page (a typical day for the article is 10-15 views).

In an interesting turn of events, this month's guest column is by my alter-ego, Elysia (Wiki Ed):

*Puts on Wiki Education hat* Hi everyone, I'm Elysia and I work for Wiki Education. You may know me as Enwebb. I got a request last month to let you know how Wiki Education is intersecting with the Tree of Life subprojects. As one of Wiki Education's major goals is to improve topics related to the sciences, leading to our Communicating Science initiative, we end up supporting quite a few in the biological sciences. Here are the TOL-related courses active this term:

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

Altogether, these 16 courses have 347 student participants. As the end of the semester hasn't come yet, these numbers are still growing, but these students have:

• created 50 new articles
• edited 516 articles in total
• made over 11.3k total edits
• added over 470,000 words
• added 5.9k references

Some of our best student work this semester (of any kind, not just biodiversity) has come from Agelaia's Behavioural Ecology course—you may remember this as the course that created WikiProject Diptera. The students have several Good Article nominations, including Dryomyza anilis, Anastrepha ludens, Aedes taeniorhynchus, Drosophila silvestris, Drosophila subobscura, and Ceratitis capitata.

And while long-term participation from students is low, there's always the chance that we'll discover a Wikipedian. I had never edited before my Wikipedia assignment in 2017 and I'm still here nearly 20,000 edits later! After I poked around in the beginning of the semester, I had the realization that not many people write Wikipedia, and very few of those have a special interest in bats. If I didn't stick around to write the content, there was no guarantee that it would ever get done.

Why are species articles suitable for students?

Writing about taxonomic groups is a great fit for students, as it keeps them away from areas where new editors traditionally struggle. The notability policy is generous towards taxa, and there is little danger of a student's work getting removed for lack of notability; this is to be expected when students write biographies. Students may struggle with encyclopedic tone for biographies and stray towards promotional writing, but this is much less common when writing about a shrew or algae!

Additionally, we're never going to run out of species to write about. Students have a bounty of stubs and redlinks to pick from. Creating a new article or expanding an existing one also takes a fairly predictable structure, with plenty of articles that students can model after.

Don't students just create messes for volunteers to clean up?

Our sincere hope is that, no, they don't, and we take several steps to try to minimize the burden on volunteer labor. With automatic plagiarism detection, alerts when students edit a Good or Featured Article, and notifications when students edit an article subject to discretionary sanctions, we try to stay ahead of problems as much as possible. We also review all student work at the end of each term. Ian, Shalor, and I are always happy to receive pings alerting us to student issues that need to be addressed.

Brants's whistling rat

Female black-capped tanager

• ... that Brants's whistling rat (illustration shown) seldom ventures more than 30 cm (12 in) from one of the many entrances to its burrow? (4 November)
• ... that the assassin bug Rhynocoris longifrons will feed on moth larvae in preference to sap-sucking pests? (5 November)
• ... that poison devil's-pepper has been used both as rat poison and as a traditional medicine for humans? (6 November)
• ... that the lamenting grasshopper seems to be expanding its range northwards in Italy, possibly as a result of climate change? (10 November)
• ... that each Xyloterinus politus larva has its own individual cradle? (12 November)
• ... that the assassin bug Rhynocoris marginatus injects venomous saliva into its prey to paralyse it? (13 November)
• ... that botanist George R. Proctor collected more than 55,000 specimens, had 31 species named after him, and was convicted of a conspiracy to murder his wife? (14 November)
• ... that the bark of Guibourtia tessmannii is much esteemed in traditional medicine and is often removed from living trees? (15 November)
• ... that the female black-capped tanager (pictured) moulds her nest by vibrating in it? (18 November)
• ... that the Satanic nightjar can make a growling noise when disturbed? (21 November)
• ... that infestations of Leptoconops torrens biting flies have halted construction and farming projects in California? (22 November)
• ... that the male of the hoverfly species Syritta pipiens darts sharply in flight to facilitate mating? (23 November)
• ... that the tree Drypetes gerrardii was named after William Gerrard, who collected plants in southern Africa in the 1860s? (25 November)
• ... that in Nova Scotia, the tricolored bat roosts exclusively in the dangling fronds of bony beard lichen? (26 November)
• ... that the southern black korhaan, native to South Africa, is becoming rarer due to loss of its natural habitat to agriculture? (27 November)
• ... that the green spruce aphid often continues breeding throughout the winter, but the nymphs become dormant in the summer? (28 November)
• ... that the ambrosia beetle Euplatypus parallelus cultivates fungi in the galleries it creates for its larvae (29 November)
• ... that the parasitic wasp Lathrolestes luteolator has adopted the amber-marked birch leaf miner as a new host? (30 November)

• On December 10th, the IUCN updated 8,225 species assessments, including 6,722 that were added to the list for the first time. All eucalypt species have officially been evaluated by the IUCN with this update. Several birds were newly declared extinct (poʻouli, cryptic treehunter, Alagoas foliage-gleaner) and one declared extinct in the wild (Spix's macaw). The official press release is here.
• Sign-ups are open for the 2020 WikiCup, a months-long competition where editors score points by improving articles. Sign-ups are open through 31 January.
• The Winter Holidays Contest is wrapping up. Christmas Island flying fox was promoted to GA, and there are several pending GANs (Christmas darter, poinsettia, and Christmas imperial pigeon). Images were added to 36 articles that were previously lacking them, and 125 articles were converted from taxoboxes to speciesboxes.
• The Tree of Life was featured in The Signpost as a WikiProject report, eight years after it was last featured. This marked the return of the WikiProject report after a year hiatus.

We're joined this month by long-time editor Plantdrew, who's currently engaged in streamlining the taxonomic structure of Wikipedia articles via the automated taxobox system.

How did you become a Wikipedian? What are your particular interests (besides the obvious of "plants")?

My first job out of school in was working for ITIS; entering new species, mostly fish. At that time, ITIS was the single largest taxonomic database, and I was enthusiastic about the prospects for the eventual completion of a comprehensive global taxonomic resource. I moved on to other things, and fews years later I became aware of Wikipedia and eventually Wikispecies. At that time (~2007), It seemed to me that Wikispecies might be the best prospect for a comprehensive global taxonomic resource. ITIS had a team of 5 data developers when I worked there, while Wikispecies had a substantially larger editor base and was growing faster than ITIS (although still smaller than ITIS). I did a little bit of editing at Wikispecies at that point, but stopped after being frustrated that a project that easily could have been a structured database had little consensus for any particular standards or structures.

As Wikipedia grew, I found myself using it more and more as a reference. Eventually I started making occasional editing as an IP to fix errors I noticed. I finally registered an account when I needed to create an article; there was an article purportedly about an insect genus, but all the information pertained to a particular species, so I created an article for the species and moved information there. I started finding more cases where Wikipedia was conflating different topics; plant product derived from multiple species with a taxobox for one species, the common name for a fairly well known fruit needing disambiguation against an obscure French town. At that point I was hooked and started making more substantial contributions. It also was apparent that while the English Wikipedia might not outpace Wikispecies in article count, it had better representation of organisms that more people were interested in, and was attracting far more readers. For the first few years I was active, I focused on adding redirects for (unambigous)) vernacular names, and resolving ambiguous vernacular names.

Aside from plants, I'm interested in slime molds, fungi, and various sessile and slow-moving animals (I like things that can be observed without them running away). I've had some short term work experience with fishes (ITIS), mammals, birds and insects.

What projects are keeping you busy around the 'pedia at present?

Well, I'm not much of a content creator. I mostly do gnomish edits.

Every day, I try to look through the all the new articles for the ToL subprojects that have new article reports set up (which reminds me, we should really get a ToL-wide new article report going). Many new articles are created by experienced ToL editors whose names I recognize, and I don't do much to check their work. For unfamiliar editors, I tag articles for the appropriate WikiProject, and check for formatting, grammar, etc. A couple years ago, I was just about the only person checking new ToL articles, but recently other ToL editors have stepped up.

Since early 2017, my main project has been converting manual taxoboxes to automatic taxoboxes. That has me going through articles systematically, and since I'm editing them anyway there are a bunch of other changes I make as necessary. Checking that classification is up-to-date, standardizing formatting, adding inline citations, refining categories, adding images if any are available on Commons, adding additional IDs to taxonbars in cases of monotypy, creating/categorizing redirects. I've slowly been working through plant articles, with occasional forays into other groups of organisms. Some of these tasks weren't part of my work flow when I first started, and there are some tasks that I could be doing, but haven't bothered with (short descriptions, certain types of categories). I expect it'll take about another year for me to finish up with plant automatic taxoboxes, and then I'm sure I'll have to find something else to do.

What's your favorite plant?

I couldn't pick just one. Pseudotsuga is the dominant tree where I grew up, and it always makes me happy to be back in a Douglas fir forest. Asimina triloba is my favorite wild edible plant that grows where I live now. I studied Berberis thunbergii as an invasive species in grad school, and have a love/hate relationship with it now (mostly hate, but it remains interesting). Belgian endive is my favorite vegetable without a Wikipedia article. I'm fond of Lamiaceae in general, and while many species are used as herbs, I'm particularly interested in mints with other uses; Salvia hispanica as a pseudo-cereal, Plectranthus rotundifolius as a root crop, and Salvia divinorum as psychoactive plant with mysterious origins (is it a cultigen?).

What's your background like? How did you come to have a special interest in biology?

I grew up in a rural area and spent a lot of time playing in the woods and working in the garden, so I interacted a lot with plants as a child. My mother's parents were (insect) taxonomists (and a great-grandparent had a keen interest in natural history). My mother was pretty comfortable with scientific names, and after my parents settled in a part of the country with many plants they hadn't been familiar with, she learned the new plants by scientific names. I knew a bunch of plants by scientific names from an early age long before I realized that other people had different names for them. When I was a little older I became interested in edible wild plants. I remained interested in plants in general, and when I was in college and discovered the discipline of ethnobotany, which really tied together the general botany side of my interests with the edible plant side.

What's something that would surprised TOL editors about your life off-wiki?

Birders have life lists of species they've seen. I have a life list of plant species I've eaten. I enjoy shopping at international grocery stores, looking for new plants to try (or different preparations of unusual plants I've already tried). I've made two trips to a city 5 hours away just to shop at a store that I'm pretty sure is the largest international grocery store in the United States. My best Christmas gift this year was a box with little sample packs of 14 different species of dried fruits and herbs from Australia. I'd prefer to try the fruits fresh, but without making a trip to Australia, this is my best opportunity to try some of the major bushfoods.

Anything else you'd like us to know?

Editing Wikipedia has been a rewarding hobby for me, and although I haven't done a lot of direct collaboration with other editors, the ToL community seems pretty friendly and relatively conflict free. ToL is a good bunch of people.

Member of genus Chrysomya

Mekong Bobtail

• ... that the tapping sound of the deathwatch beetle has long been considered an omen of an impending death? (1 December)
• ... that Chinese virologist George F. Gao led a test laboratory in Sierra Leone during the peak of the 2014 Ebola outbreak? (1 December)
• ... that the chirps of the snowy tree cricket can be used to estimate the temperature? (2 December)
• ... that research on pain in fish by Victoria Braithwaite resulted in new rules in the UK, Europe, and Canada to make fisheries more humane? (2 December)
• ... that plant physiologist Hu Dujing cultivated Eucommia ulmoides to produce a substitute for rubber? (3 December)
• ... that Rhagoletis juglandis is a species of fly that infests walnuts? (3 December)
• ... that the granulate ambrosia beetle is native to Asia but has spread as an invasive species to Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania? (5 December)
• ... that the Peleng tarsier, a small carnivorous primate, can rotate its head nearly 180 degrees in either direction? (7 December)
• ... that Chrysomya putoria (genus member pictured) and other flies that feed on decomposing flesh are used as important tools in forensic entomology to establish the post-mortem interval? (9 December)
• ... that a moth is being used in biological pest control of the sugarcane planthopper? (12 December)
• ... that because photomicrographs of Longan witches broom-associated virus were not published, the virus was not initially accepted as the cause of the eponymous disease? (13 December)
• ... that infestations of the cotton jassid can be reduced by growing a cotton cultivar with hairy leaves? (14 December)
• ... that Coelopa pilipes fly populations can live at temperatures of 40 °C (104 °F) within piles of kelp, even in areas covered with snow and ice? (18 December)
• ... that Hirtodrosophila mycetophaga mate on bracket fungi, selectively choosing those with a lighter surface to enhance the visibility of their courtship displays? (19 December)
• ... that Appasus japonicus (pictured), a species of giant water bug, provides an example of insect paternal care? (20 December)
• ... that the banana weevil is considered the most serious insect pest of bananas? (21 December)
• ... that the Christmas Island flying fox matures more slowly than nearly all other bats? (26 December)
• ... that in the absence of males in North America, the female woolly alder sawfly reproduces through parthenogenesis? (26 December)
• ... that the Christmas darter is considered a priority species by the state of South Carolina, but of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature? (28 December)
• ... that after laying its eggs on a leaf, the female mango leaf-cutting weevil severs the leaf near its base and lets it fall to the ground? (30 December)
• ... that Mekong Bobtails (example pictured) were among 200 royal cats given to Nicholas II of Russia by King Chulalongkorn of Siam in the 19th century? (31 December)

• In a major milestone for the automated taxobox system, more taxa articles now use automatic taxoboxes than manual ones. Particularly robust groups for automatic taxoboxes are turtles, primates, birds, rodents, amphibians and reptiles, sharks, and bivalves, with each project adopting automatic taxoboxes at rates greater than 95%. Only the fungi, arthropods, and microbiology projects had automatic taxobox adoption rates less than 25%. Read more in the 1 January update.
• Thanks to user Trappist the monk, all citations to the IUCN using Template:Cite web or Template:Cite journal have now been swapped to Template:Cite iucn. This will prevent a recurrence of massive link failure should the IUCN change its URL format again. That does not address the 14.5k articles that cite the IUCN without the use of templates. For more background discussion, see here and here.

Fossil teeth of Alopias palatasi

LuEsther T. Mertz Library

The Central Park mandarin duck

Christmas Island red crab

Salvador Dalí with his pet ocelot Babou

Passionvine bug

Tansy beetle

Winter bell

Doubleband surgeonfish

• ... that the extinct giant thresher shark Alopias palatasi is the only one of its kind to possess serrated teeth (pictured)? (1 January)
• ... that Dogor, an 18,000-year-old canine puppy, may represent a common ancestor of the dog and the wolf? (2 January)
• ... that the Caton Oak in Lancashire, England, was reputed to be a site of worship by druids? (4 January)
• ... that the LuEsther T. Mertz Library (pictured), one of the world's largest botanical libraries, had 6.5 million plant specimens and 75 percent of the world's systematic botany literature in 2002? (4 January)
• ... that Australian biologist Lee Berger identified Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis as being responsible for the decline and extinction of hundreds of amphibian species? (5 January)
• ... that the beetle Zaitzevia thermae has a total habitat of less than 35 square metres (380 sq ft) around one hot spring in Montana? (6 January)
• ... that the Anatolian frog is exported from Turkey to France, Italy and Switzerland for food, and is considered by the IUCN to be a near-threatened species? (6 January)
• ... that the stems and leaves of the endangered Holloway's crystalwort look as if they are covered in sugar crystals? (8 January)
• ... that a severe infestation of the palm weevil borer can kill its host palm? (9 January)
• ... that a mandarin duck (pictured) that appeared in New York City's Central Park became an international celebrity, with followers whom the Associated Press called "quackarazzi"? (10 January)
• ... that the Lac La Croix Indian Pony was recreated from a breeding population of four mares by crossing them with a Spanish Mustang? (11 January)
• ... that the female Savannah darter lays clutches of sticky eggs that she buries in gravel or sand? (12 January)
• ... that the Malayan banded pitta is threatened by the destruction of its forest habitat and by being targeted for the illegal trade in birds? (12 January)
• ... that in 2007, a rescued European bison calf dubbed Pubal grew so attached to humans in southeastern Poland that he could not be successfully reintegrated back into the wild? (13 January)
• ... that evolutionary biologist Rebecca Kilner has found that mites can give burying beetles a competitive advantage? (13 January)
• ... that jellyfish blooms can clog coastal power plants, causing losses of tens of thousands of US dollars per day? (14 January)
• ... that redbanded thrips are a significant pest of mango and cacao in the West Indies? (15 January)
• ... that the red crabs (example pictured) dominating the wildlife of Christmas Island have been threatened by the arrival of yellow crazy ants? (15 January)
• ... that Anisocentropus krampus was described in the same paper as other insects with monstrous names like Ganonema dracula and Anisocentropus golem? (16 January)
• ... that in France, the beetle Aepus marinus is restricted to a narrow strip of the beach near the high-water mark? (17 January)
• ... that the palm scale was first found on an endemic species of palm on the island of Réunion, but now infests plants in at least 78 families around the world? (17 January)
• ... that artist Salvador Dalí claimed that his pet ocelot (both pictured) was an ordinary domestic cat that he had "painted over in an op art design"? (18 January)
• ... that a whale found in western Vermont has presented further evidence of glaciation in New England? (19 January)
• ... that hosts of the passionvine bug (example pictured) include coffee, citrus, mung bean, squash, and mango? (21 January)
• ... that the lizard goby holds on to rocks in fast-flowing water by means of a "sucker" formed from two fins? (21 January)
• ... that the egg sacs of the newly discovered Phinda button spider are made of bright purple silk that fades to grey when it dries? (22 January)
• ... that the nationally rare tansy beetle (example pictured) survives at Acaster South Ings, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near York, England? (23 January)
• ... that chitons, such as Acanthochitona crinita, are molluscs with a shell composed of eight separate articulating valves? (25 January)
• ... that the main pollinators of the winter bell (pictured) are the singing honeyeater and the red wattlebird? (26 January)
• ... that with a stretched length of up to 20 cm (8 in), Pontobdella muricata is one of the largest marine leeches? (28 January)
• ... that not only does Couma utilis have edible fruit, its latex is used as a base for chewing gum, caulking boats, and whitewashing houses? (29 January)
• ... that the doubleband surgeonfish (example pictured) can turn a dark brown shade flushed with red or violet when stressed? (30 January)

• The Great Britain and Ireland Destubathon began on 1 March and runs for the entire month. Expansion of any stubs related to Great Britain and Ireland is welcome, inclusive of taxa. There are also monetary prizes for winners of specific categories in the form of Amazon gift cards. PetScan could be useful here to find the intersection of Stub-class articles and other categories: Biota of Ireland; Biota of Great Britain; Biota of the Isle of Man
• The WP:WikiCup just completed its first round. Dunkleosteus77 had the most points of any Tree of Life editor, with 5 GAs and 6 GARs. Other Tree of Life editors moving on to round two include Enwebb, Sainsf, starsandwhales, Guettarda, and Casliber.
• Some winners of the 2019 Wiki Science Competition have been announced. For the finalists and winners, see here.

With the outbreak of a novel coronavirus dominating news coverage, Wikipedia content related to the virus has seen much higher interest. Tree of Life content of particular interest to readers has included viruses, bats, pangolins, and masked palm civets. Viruses saw the most dramatic growth in readership: Coronavirus, which was the 105th most popular virus article in December 2019 with about 400 views per day, averaged over a quarter million views each day of January 2020. Total monthly viewership of the top-10 virus articles ballooned from about 1.5 million to nearly 20 million.

From October 2019 – December 2019, the top ten most popular bat articles fluctuated among 16 different articles, with the December viewership of those 10 articles at 209,280. For January 2020, three articles broke into the top-10 that were not among the 16 articles of the prior three months: Bat as food, Horseshoe bat, and Bat-borne virus. Viewership of the top-10 bat articles spiked nearly 300% to 617,067 in January.

While bats have been implicated as a possible natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, an intermediate host may be the bridge between bats and humans. Pangolins have been hypothesized as the intermediate host for the virus, causing a large spike in typical page views of 2-3k each day up to more than 60k in a day. Masked palm civets, the intermediate host of SARS, saw a modest yet noticeable spike in page views as well, from 100 to 300 views per day to as many as 5k views per day.

With an increase in viewers came an increase in editors. In an interview, longtime virus editor Awkwafaba identified the influx of editors as the biggest challenge in editing content related to the coronavirus. They noted that these newcomers include "novices who make honest mistakes and get tossed about a bit in the mad activity" as well as "experienced editors who know nothing about viruses and are good researchers, yet aren't familiar with the policies of WP:ToL or WP:Viruses." Disruption also increased, with extended confirmed protection (also known as the 30/500 rule, which prevents editors with fewer than 30 days tenure and 500 edits from making edits and is typically used on a very small subset of Wikipedia articles) temporarily applied to Coronavirus and still active on Template:2019–20 coronavirus outbreak data. New editors apparently seeking to correct misinformation continuously edited the article Bat as food to remove content related to China: Videos of Chinese people eating bat soup were misrepresented to be current or filmed in China, when at least one such video was several years old and filmed in Palau. However, reliable sources confirm that bats are eaten in China, especially Southern China, so these well-meaning edits were mostly removed.

Another level of complexity was added by the fluctuating terminology of the virus. Over a dozen moves and merges were requested within WikiProject Viruses. To give you an idea of the musical chairs happening with article titles, here are the move histories of two articles:

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

• Began as Wuhan coronavirus on 9 January
• Moved to 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 16 January
• Moved to Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 19 January
• Moved to 2019 novel coronavirus on 9 February
• Moved to Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 on 18 February (current name)

2019–20 coronavirus outbreak

• Began as 2019-2020 China pneumonia outbreak on 5 January
• Moved to 2019–20 China pneumonia outbreak on 5 January
• Moved to 2019-20 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China on 15 January
• Moved to 2019-20 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 15 January
• Moved to 2019–20 outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on 15 January
• Moved to 2019–20 outbreak of novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV on 23 January
• Moved to 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak on 23 January
• Moved to 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak on 18 February (current name)

Awkwafaba noted that "the main authorities, WHO and ICTV, don't really have a process for speedily naming a virus or disease." Additionally, they have different criteria for naming. They said, "I remember in a move discussion from the article then called Wuhan coronavirus that a virus name cannot have a geographical location in it, but this is a WHO disease naming guideline, and not an ICTV virus naming rule. ICTV may have renamed Four Corners virus to Sin Nombre orthohantavirus but there are still plenty of official virus species names that don't abide by WHO guidelines."

Thistle broomrape

Painting of the Shelton Oak

Female A. diabolicum flowers with curled stigmas

• ... that juvenile ornate surgeonfish are quite different in colouring from the adult fish? (1 February)
• ... that Quarry Moor is one of the few locations in England where the rare parasitic plant thistle broomrape (example pictured) grows? (2 February)
• ... that the hollow Shelton Oak (pictured) near Shrewsbury was so big that a party of eight could dance a quadrille inside it? (3 February)
• ... that growth in the brown seaweed Zanardinia typus occurs at the base of the hairs that grow around the edge of the frond? (4 February)
• ... that entomologist Karim Vahed led the team that found a cricket species in which the testes accounted for 14 percent of the insect's body mass? (4 February)
• ... that the ant Acropyga exsanguis shares its nest with several species of mealybug, including Geococcus coffeae? (4 February)
• ... that no fungi or algae are listed as endangered or threatened by the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board? (5 February)
• ... that the blue pitta is a shy, secretive bird, but will respond to a recording of its call? (5 February)
• ... that Acer diabolicum, the devil maple, gets its scientific and common names from the curly stigmas of its flowers (pictured)? (6 February)
• ... that the alga Acetabularia acetabulum (pictured) resembles a green parasol? (7 February)
• ... that Bishop Monkton Ings in North Yorkshire, England, provides a habitat to the semi-parasitic marsh lousewort? (9 February)
• ... that although the bird of paradise fly was first described from an Angophora tree, it is quite likely that this is not the insect's host plant? (11 February)
• ... that Hack Fall Wood in North Yorkshire, England, hosts the rare lemon slug (example pictured)? (13 February)
• ... that the hairy sea cucumber has long tube feet on its dorsal surface, giving it a furry appearance? (14 February)
• ... that Diego (pictured) "had so much sex he saved his species"? (15 February)
• ... that common lousewort owes its name to the belief that livestock that ate it would become lousy? (16 February)
• ... that groups of social feather dusters sway in unison in the water current and retract into their tubes at the slightest disturbance (16 February)
• ... that the copepod Mesocyclops longisetus can be used in the biological control of mosquitoes? (17 February)
• ... that the specific name of Pterophorus pentadactyla, commonly known as the white plume moth, comes from the Greek for 'five fingers'? (22 February)
• ... that the laciniate conch (shell pictured) is able to flip itself off the seabed using its muscular foot? (25 February)

• A year of the Tree of Life Newsletter: Thank you to all the subscribers who have been with us from the beginning or have joined along the way, and to those who have contributed their time to producing this newsletter. I've really valued your ideas, copyediting, and willingness to be interviewed. Onwards and upwards!
• April marks the start of the GAN Backlog Drive, which continues through the end of May. The goal of this backlog elimination drive is to cut the number of outstanding GANs, in particular those which have been in the queue 90 days or more. All hands welcome, new and old.
• The finalists of the US Wiki Science Competition have been announced. Illustrating Wikipedia articles can be challenging, so these new images represent a chance to find suitable media for our articles. For all images uploaded in the Wiki Science Competition, see here and click "all images" in the upper right corner.

The newest Tree of Life WikiProject is about a taxon that is dominating the headlines, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and its many effects. We interviewed Another Believer, the founder of WikiProject COVID-19.

This interview has been edited for length. Find the full interview here.

1. Please describe how you went about creating WikiProject COVID-19. What made you think a project was needed?

   I've been following the outbreak and editing related Wikipedia articles since January. I'm not particularly interested in infectious diseases or viruses, but I've been to China a few times and wanted to monitor the outbreak's impact on society as well as the government's response. For a while, I was casually tracking updates to the first couple pages about the outbreak. Then a pattern began to emerge as February saw the creation of separate articles about outbreaks in Iran, Italy, and South Korea. New Wikipedia articles continued being created in early March, and the outbreak was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11. Knowing there would many more articles, lists, templates, illustrations, and other pages on Wikipedia, I created WikiProject COVID-19 on March 15. My goal was simply to create a temporary or permanent space for editors to collaborate, communicate, and focus specifically on content related to this ongoing pandemic. I'm a member of many WikiProjects and have created several before, but this one definitely felt more necessary and urgent. Most WikiProjects unite editors with similar interests, which is fine and serves a purpose, but I felt this project could have a much bigger real life impact. I don't think I was alone in my thinking; the project had 80 members by March 20 and 100 members by March 26.

2. Who or what was invaluable to getting off the ground?

   If I'm being honest, getting this project off the ground required little work on my part. All I did was create the space and post invitations to existing talk pages related to the outbreak. Editors joined the project very quickly; 30 members joined on the same day I started the project, and there were more than 50 participants one day later. I've been a daily Wikipedia editor for more than 12 years, and I've never seen so much interest in a project or content added to Wikipedia about a specific topic in such a short period of time. WikiProject members worked expeditiously to build a framework and hang a barnstar, tagging related pages, assessing content, and starting talk page discussions about the project's goals and scope. I'm thankful to the many editors who pitched in to get the project established, and I look forward to seeing how editors collaborate in this space as we move forward.

3. What are the short-term goals of the project?

   No specific goals have been posted to the project page yet, but I'd like to think members share a collective desire to ensure Wikipedia has accurate and reliable information about the disease and pandemic. Disinformation and misinformation seem rampant these days, so we're working to give readers around the globe access to accurate, objective, and possibly even life-saving information. Unlike some WikiProjects which may take a more historical approach to documenting certain topics, WikiProject COVID-19 members have the ability to mitigate the disease's spread in real time by arming communities with facts about outbreaks in their region as well as information about prevention, testing, vaccine research, societal impact, etc.

   

4. What are the long-term goals? English Wikipedia has many of 'lumpers' who think there are too many projects already. The project has also inspired the creation of two portals, which I imagine caused some raised eyebrows in this trend of portal deletionism. What will come of the WP after the current outbreak subsides?

   After creating WikiProject COVID-19, a couple editors said I should have created a task force instead of a standalone WikiProject. I wasn't bothered. The number of 'thank you' notifications I received for creating the page vastly outweighed these critical comments. I knew the page I created was much needed, and I would be fine if editors decide to call the page by another name. I understand some editors think there are too many WikiProjects. No one's required to join WikiProject COVID-19, but the 100+ of us who have already joined invite you to help with our efforts, if you're interested. As for the project's future, I would be fine if editors decided to convert the WikiProject into a task force, or even put the project into retirement if the time comes. Given the level of interest and impact the pandemic has already had on a global scale, I have a feeling the WikiProject will be active for a long time.

5. Another criticism of the project is its narrow focus. It is focused on only one strain of virus, and the disease it causes. Even WikiProject AIDS is about two species of virus. Is the scope of the project too small? What would an expanded scope look like? Why would including another virus strain in the same species, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus which causes SARS, not be wanted? or is it wanted?

   Narrow focus? I disagree. The project may focus on a single virus and disease, but the pandemic has resulted in the creation of hundreds of Wikipedia articles documenting outbreaks in most countries and territories. There are pages covering the pandemic's impact on aviation, cinema, education, politics, religion, sports, and television, not to mention others related to the resulting economic turmoil. Additionally, there are hundreds of templates, charts, and other graphics. Who knows how many thousands of images and other media will be uploaded at Wikimedia Commons by the time this pandemic subsides? There's also COVID-19 WikiProject COVID-19 at Wikidata, and I wouldn't be surprised if similar spaces are created for other Wikimedia projects soon. Even if the focus is narrow, there's plenty of content for Wikimedians to improve and protect.

6. In your opinion, what should be the guidelines for creating a new project, as opposed to creating a task force or working under an existing WikiProject?

   I don't feel strongly about new project creation guidelines, or the differences between WikiProjects and task forces. Project members should decide what structure works for them and call themselves whatever name they prefer. I understand project construction requires maintenance and can come at an administrative cost, but we should be careful about discouraging editors from proposing new projects.

   Ideally, editors would only create a new WikiProject if at least a few others were committed to joining. I created WikiProject COVID-19 without conferring with others because I assumed the interest would be there. I encourage people to be bold and create project pages, but maybe ask a few other editors for feedback first. I'll let other editors worry about the guidelines.

7. What tools (templates, bots, etc.) are essential, or even just really helpful, for organizing and maintaining a successful project? What is something every WP should do, that maybe isn't doing now?

   I appreciate the standard WikiProject assessment framework. AlexNewArtBot and Article alerts have also been very helpful.

8. What have you learned about Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or COVID-19 during this process that surprised you?

   I don't have any sort of medical background, and I'm more interested in the pandemic's impact than details about the disease or virus. Most surprising to me has been the lack of preparedness for combating outbreaks by governments around the world, including here in the United States. I don't know how COVID-19's spread compares to other infectious diseases, but as I've watched the outbreak develop I've continually wondered why governments did not start preparing earlier. What was happening in China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea should have prompted action sooner.

9. What important things about 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic do you think folks should know and maybe have missed in the deluge of information coming at people?

   1. Know the most common symptoms: cough, fever, and difficulty breathing.

   2. Learn what behavioral adjustments you should make to protect yourself and reduce transmission, and remember to wash your hands.

   3. Get your information from reputable sources. I'd like to think Wikipedia editors are pretty good at this last bit of advice.

Thank you to Another Believer for your time, both in this interview and in this project. Interested readers can join WikiProject COVID-19. And please stay safe and healthy out there. --Awkwafaba

• ... that Calamagrostis intermedia is the dominant plant of the grassy páramo in Ecuador's El Cajas National Park? (March 1)
• ... that the blood-sucking bug Primicimex cavernis survives in a cave in Texas while the bats on which it feeds overwinter elsewhere? (March 2)
• ... that the worm Phyllodoce lineata is a predator and scavenger, feeding mostly on other polychaetes? (March 4)
• ... that the crested oyster has been eaten by humans for at least 6,000 years? (March 5)
• ... that larvae of the tube worm Hydroides ezoensis prefer to settle on a substrate already inhabited by other worms of their own species? (March 14)
• ... that the sea slug Berthella ocellata hides during the day and feeds on sponges such as Corticium candelabrum at night? (March 18)
• ... that the sea cucumber Actinopyga agassizii has five teeth surrounding its anus? (March 19)
• ... that unlike most soft scale insects, the adult female pyriform scale is able to move around? (March 20)
• ... that in Florida, winged termites are sometimes found stuck to wet foliage, buildings, or vehicles after rain? (March 23)
• ... that despite being known as the Kerry lily, the perennial plant has a much wider distribution outside Ireland? (March 24)
• ... that in 1725 Hans Sloane described a plant he called Prickly-Pole as the Jamaican tree species that was "the most fit to make Rods and Scowrers for Guns"? (March 25)
• ... that a deep-sea fish known as a black ruff was caught in a salmon net in the Firth of Forth and donated to the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art in 1901? (March 29)
• ... that the flowering plant Gentianella anglica is found only in Great Britain? (March 30)

• WikiProject Birds gained a new task force. A discussion determined that WikiProject Poultry might be more successful as a task force, with the move completed 15 April.
• Round 2 of the WikiCup wrapped up this month. Several editors moved on to Round 3 by scoring points in biodiversity-related areas, including Sainsf, Casliber, Dunkleosteus77, CaptainEek, Guettarda, and Enwebb. Dunkleosteus77 finished at the top of the Tree of Life pack with 608 points, finishing 9th overall in the round.
• After a relatively quiet February and March, with only 11 total articles nominated for GA and none for FAC, April brought a shower of nominations. In total, 5 articles were nominated for FAC, 1 for FLC, and 11 for GA.

Inspired by a March 2020 post at WikiProject Medicine detailing the growth of Featured Articles over time, we decided to reproduce that table here, adding a second table showing the growth of Good Articles. Tree of Life articles are placed in the "Biology" category for FAs, which has seen a growth of 381% since 2008. Only two other subjects had a greater growth than Biology: Business, economics, and finance; and Warfare.

• Note A: Total is off by one; not worth looking for the error.
• Note B Three food biographies moved [6] per discussion at WT:FAC
• Note: The very odd dates used in earlier years result from pulling old data from the talk page at WP:FAS.

*subset of natural sciences

Unsurprisingly, the number of GAs has increased more rapidly than the number of FAs. Organisms, which is a subcategory of Natural sciences, has seen a GA growth of 755% since 2008, besting the Natural sciences overall growth of 530%. While Warfare had far and away the most significant growth of GAs, it's a clear outlier relative to other categories.

Jenny

White-throated round-eared bat

Formica fusca ants tending mealybugs

• ... that the human-like behaviour of Jenny (depicted), a resident of London Zoo, reinforced Charles Darwin's view that humans were "created from animals"? (3 April)
• ... that white-throated round-eared bats (example pictured) roost in cavities in active termite mounds excavated by the males? (4 April)
• ... that flatter mires in montane regions of Europe are often dominated by deergrass and cottongrass? (5 April)
• ... that the white-browed tit-warbler has been found to practice cooperative breeding? (6 April)
• ... that most species in the palm genus Desmoncus climb using grappling hook–like structures called acanthopylls? (7 April)
• ... that some ants herd scale insects (example pictured)? (10 April)
• ... that birds, bats and humans are the main hosts of members of the bed bug family? (12 April)
• ... that the sponge Aplysina cavernicola (pictured) has been used as a model organism to monitor the presence of isotopes such as americium-241 in seawater? (16 April)
• ... that although the alpine bartsia has a wide range in Europe and North America, it is known in the British Isles only from a few locations in northern England and the central Scottish Highlands? (19 April)
• ... that the orange-band surgeonfish (pictured) can change colour from dark to light almost instantaneously? (21 April)
• ... that the parasitic greater broomrape usually grows on the roots of the common broom or the European gorse? (24 April)
• ... that the tree Macaranga triloba encourages the ants that defend it by providing them with food bodies? (25 April)
• ... that amateur entomologist James John Joicey had a collection of 1.5 million butterflies? (28 April)
• ... that the globe chamomile (pictured), a member of the daisy family native to South Africa, infests parts of Arizona and California? (28 April)
• ... that the bicoloured sedge (pictured) was part of an attempted botanical fraud? (30 April)

• This month saw two Tree of Life editors gain the mop: CaptainEek (WikiProjects Birds and Plants) and Cwmhiraeth (familiar name at DYK, WikiProjects Plants, Animals, and Insects)
• The April – May GAN backlog drive finished up, clearing the queue from nearly 700 outstanding nominations to about 350.

This month we're joined by Jts1882, who is active in depicting evolutionary relationship of taxa via cladograms. Part of this includes responding to cladogram requests, where interested editors can have cladograms made without using the templates themselves.

How did you come to be interested in systematics? Are you interested in systematics broadly, or is there a particular group you're most fond of?

As long as I can remember I’ve been interested in nature, starting with the animals and plants in the garden, school grounds, and local wood, and then more general wildlife worldwide. An interest in how things are classified grew from this. I like things to be organised and understanding the relationships between things and systems (not just living things) is a big part of that. Biology was always my favourite subject in school and took up a disproportionate part of my time. My interest in systematics is broad as I’d like to comprehend the whole tree of life, but the cat family is my favourite group.

What's the background behind cladogram requests? I see that it isn't a very old part of the Tree of Life

Well I can’t take any credit for the cladogram requests page, although I help out there sometimes. It was created by IJReid and there are several people who have helped there more than me. I think the motivation is that creating cladograms requires a knowledge of the templates that is daunting for many editors. It was one way of helping people who want to focus on content creation.

My main contribution to the cladograms is converting the {{clade}} template to use a Lua module. The template code was extremely difficult to follow and had to be repetitive (I can only admire the efforts of those who got the thing to work in the first place). The conversion to Lua made it more efficient, allowed larger and deeper cladograms, plus facilitating the introduction of new features. The cladogram request page was recently the venue for discussion on making time calibrated cladograms, which is now possible, if not particularly user friendly.

What advice do you have for an editor who wants to learn how to make cladograms?

The same advice I would give to someone facing any computer problem, just try it out. Start by taking existing code for a cladogram and make changes yourself. The main advice would be to format it properly so indents match the brackets vertically. Of course, not everyone wants to learn and if someone prefers to focus on article content there is the cladogram request page.

Do you have any personal projects or goals you're working towards on Wikipedia?

As I said I like organisation and systems. So I find efforts like the automated taxobox system and {{taxonbar}} appealing. I would like to see more reuse of the major phylogenetic trees on Wikipedia with more use of consensus trees on the higher taxa. Too often they get edited based on one recent report and/or without proper citation. Animals and bilateria are examples where this is a problem.

Towards this I have been working on a system of phylogeny templates that can be reused flexibly. The {{Clade transclude}} template allows selective transclusion, so the phylogenetic trees on one page can be reused with modifications, i.e. can be pruned and grafted, used with or without images, with or without collapsible elements, etc. I have an example for the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification (see {{Phylogeny/APG IV}}) and one for squamates that also includes collapsible elements (see {{Phylogeny/Squamata}}).

A second project is to have a modular reference system for taxonomic resources. I have made some progress along this lines with the {{BioRef}} template. This started off simply as a way of hardlinking to Catalog of Fishes pages and I’ve gradually expanded it to cover other groups (e..g. FishBase, AmphibiaWeb and Amphibian Species of the World, Reptile Database, the Mammalian Diversity Database). The modular nature is still rudimentary and needs a rewrite before it is ready for wider use.

What would surprise your fellow editors to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?

I don’t think there is anything particularly surprising or interesting about my life. I’ve had an academic career as a research scientist but I don't think anyone could guess the area from my Wikipedia edits. I prefer to work on areas where I am learning at the same time. This why I spend more time with neglected topics (e.g. mosses at the moment). I start reading and then find that I’m not getting the information I want.

Anything else you'd like us to know?

My interest in the classification of things goes beyond biology. I am fascinated by mediaeval attempts to classify knowledge, such as Bacon in his The Advancement of Learning and Diderot and d’Alembert in their Encyclopédie. They were trying to come up with a universal scheme of knowledge just as the printing press was allowing greater dissemination of knowledge.

With the internet we are seeing a new revolution in knowledge dissemination. Just look at how we could read research papers on the COVID virus within weeks of its discovery. With an open internet, everyone has access, not just those with the luxury of books at home or good libraries. Sites like the Biodiversity Heritage Library allow you to read old scientific works without having to visit dusty university library stack rooms, while the taxonomic and checklist databases provide instant information on millions of living species. In principle, the whole world can now find out about anything, even if Douglas Adams warned we might be disinclined to do so.

This is why I like Wikipedia, with all its warts, it’s a means of organising the knowledge on the internet. In just two decades it’s become a first stop for knowledge and hopefully a gateway to more specialised sources. Perhaps developing this latter aspect, beyond providing good sources for what we say, is the next challenge for Wikipedia.

Slender Scotch burnet moth on a flower

Northern plains gray langur

Male vermilion flycatcher

Canada lynx

Meerkats

Hilarimorphites burmanica

Sun bear

• ... that coconut mites can be dispersed by wind, or perhaps by hitching a lift? (1 May)
• ... that Neanderthals went fishing? (1 May)
• ... that the Rowridge Valley in the Isle of Wight is the only known location for the wood calamint in Britain? (1 May)
• ... that Tetraponera penzigi is one of several species of ant that protect whistling thorn trees in East Africa from grazing giraffes and rhinoceroses? (3 May)
• ... that the Vietnam mouse-deer, which had been feared to have gone extinct nearly 30 years ago, was sighted again in 2019? (4 May)
• ... that most branchiobdellids use crayfish as hosts, living on their heads, carapaces, or claws, but in some instances inside their gill cavities? (5 May)
• ... that the song of the Madagascan hoopoe differs markedly from that of the African hoopoe? (5 May)
• ... that populations of the slender Scotch burnet (pictured), a European moth that lives in dry, lime-rich areas, have been declining? (6 May)
• ... that the spinosaurid dinosaur Ichthyovenator had two sails on its back? (9 May)
• ... that the scale insect Saissetia coffeae attacks many other plants besides coffee? (9 May)
• ... that entomologist Frederick Vincent Theobald wrote a five-volume monograph and sixty scientific papers on mosquitoes? (12 May)
• ... that the northern plains gray langur monkey (example pictured) is killed in India for food and to prevent crop raiding, despite being considered sacred by Hindus? (12 May)
• ... that the leech Limnatis nilotica can affect humans and livestock, entering hosts through the mouth, nose, or other orifices? (12 May)
• ... that while the termite Pterotermes occidentis inhabits dead blue palo verde in the Sonoran Desert, Marginitermes hubbardi prefers dead saguaro? (14 May)
• ... that the tree Barteria fistulosa is associated with Tetraponera aethiops, an aggressive species of ant that lives in its hollow branches and twigs? (15 May)
• ... that Miller's langur, one of the rarest primates in Borneo, was feared to be extinct until a 2012 study rediscovered it in an area where it was previously unknown? (16 May)
• ... that most of the known Gigantopithecus fossils are of teeth because the other bones are likely to have been eaten by porcupines? (17 May)
• ... that Tetraponera tessmanni, a very aggressive ant, is able to establish dominance over the whole of the liana in which it lives, which may be 50 m (164 ft) long? (17 May)
• ... that mesophyletid weevils have only been found in Burmese amber? (18 May)
• ... that Pyrocephalus, the genus name of the vermilion flycatcher (example pictured), literally means 'fire head'? (19 May)
• ... that the male bigtooth cardinalfish broods a ball of eggs in his mouth? (20 May)
• ... that in the Australian Journal of Herpetology, a first-year student and a high school teacher reassessed the taxonomy of Australia's entire reptile class, naming 33 novel genera and 214 new species? (20 May)
• ... that the Arizona dampwood termite exclusively colonizes dead parts of standing trees? (22 May)
• ... that Megaceroides algericus is one of only two deer species known to have been native to Africa, alongside the Barbary stag? (23 May)
• ... that besides eating ants and termites, the waved woodpecker feeds on fruits, berries, and seeds? (24 May)
• ... that populations of the Canada lynx (pictured) undergo cyclic rises and falls in line with those of the snowshoe hare? (25 May)
• ... that despite being known as the Mexican hydrangea, Clerodendrum bungei is neither from Mexico nor a species of hydrangea? (25 May)
• ... that meerkats (examples pictured) use alarm calls that can identify the type of predator posing the risk, the level of danger, and the caller itself? (27 May)
• ... that the frog Boophis fayi can be identified by its unusual green-and-turquoise eyes? (30 May)
• ... that members of the fly family Apystomyiidae (example depicted) have been found in Late Jurassic sediments in Kazakhstan? (30 May)
• ... that the sun bear (pictured) is the smallest of all bear species? (31 May)