Talk:Eulaema meriana

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Chtsai016 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Mandeljulia, Mkfreiler, Xerylium, AddyShak.

Purpose of flight loop

The Biology section states, "At intervals [the male bee] takes off and flies a few metres away from the perch before looping back to land close to its previous spot." Are there any studies on whether this might disperse fragrance or pheromones? --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 13:49, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

I think not. There was information that the loop was larger if there were other male territories in close proximity, so perhaps the purpose of the flight is to advertise the male's presence to any passing female. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 14:05, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Recent Edits

I added a few sections to this article. I added a few details to the descriptive overview and introduction. Additionally I added a section on Taxonomy and Phylogeny, some details about the colony, and behavior within the species. A short section on interaction with parasites was also added. Anything that was present before my edits was moved into the appropriate sections, and were not deleted to respect the original users' contributions. (talk) 23:35, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. Your additions to the article are most helpful. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 05:45, 27 September 2015 (UTC)

I added more sections about mimicry, sociality, and lek behavior to the article, as well as another hypothesis about the wing buzzing of the bee. Short sections of information were also added to other existing sections of the article. (talk) 23:49, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

Editing for Class

I am a student at Washington University in St. Louis and will be editing and making comments on this article for a behavioral ecology class.

A general comment is that Eulaema meriana should be shortened to E. meriana or El. meriana

I would recommend rewording the Description section, particularly the first paragraph where you describe the bee's physical appearance.

I also recommend editing the Taxonomy and Phylogeny section as many of the details given in the middle of the paragraph don't quite fit this section. Also, I'm unclear as to what you mean by "They are the only group among corbiculate bees that are not eusocial bees." It's unclear pronoun use. Does they refer to orchid bees, your bee or something else because Eulaema meriana is not the only non-eusocial corbiculate bee.

To help clarify your Distribution section I'd recommend adding a map of the geographical distribution of your bee. You may also want to move details about orchid bees from the Taxo section to this one. The Taxo and Distribution sections are a bit confusing as you talk both about Eulaema meriana specifically, but also more generally about the Euglossini tribe.

In the pollination section, which genus are you referring to in "In more primitive species in this genus"? I believe you mean Eulaema, but it is unclear. In the last sentence of this section, are you saying that Eulaema meriana is necessary to pollinate orchids, brazil nut tree flowers or both?

In the nest section I made minor wording edits, though you may want to go back and see if you can make things flow better. I deleted a sentence as it was repetitive in this section. Could you add in the brood cell size?

I'd recommend combining the separate sections for Colonies into one. The sentence " For single female nests, each cluster of cells represents the reproductive output for one female, which on average is construction and oviposition over four or five brood cells before disappearing." is confusing. Where/what disappears? You should also clarify the sentence to make it clear the reproductive output is 4-5 constructed and sealed cells, each containing a larva.

I am not sure what you mean by "wing buzzing per perching". Is this when the male's wing buzzes while it is perched or does wing buzzing increase with successive perches?

You should take out the second paragraph of the Territorality section as much of the information has been stated already, so it is very redundant and does not fit with the section. The third paragraph has some poor paraphrasing and is confusing to read. Do multiple transients fly up to a territorial male at the same time?

For the Lek section, how many males perch together? The behavior you write about is interesting, but the crux of a lek is that it is an aggregation of multiple males, which you don't talk about.

For the Parasite section, the beetle is not a parasite of Eulaema meriana. A phoretic relationship is a non-parasitic one, from what I've read. However, the reference does states "the species parasitizing E. meriana is of the phoretic type" so it's very confusing. You may want to dig further and find the original literature to update this. Xerylium (talk • contribs) 22:53, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestions - I will be expanding on this bee for our next Wiki assignment for our class, and will make the appropriate changes in my next upload of revisions and new sections. Chtsai016 (talk) 21:04, 5 October 2015 CT

Editing

Hi! I read through your article and found it to be a very informative and nicely organized article! I think it is one of the best ones I've seen thus far in my behavior ecology class so editing it was particularly difficult. I made some minor changes in simple word choice, punctuation, and syntax to make sentences flow easier for the reader. I do think a geographical distribution map would be beneficial in this specific article since that section was pretty dense in information. Otherwise, I thought your article was a good one!AddyShak (talk) 00:28, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestions - I will be expanding on this bee for our next Wiki assignment for our class, and will make the appropriate changes in my next upload of revisions and new sections. Chtsai016 (talk) 21:04, 5 October 2015 CT

Edit

Hey, I'm a student from Washington University of St. Louis and I just wanted to contribute to your article! I think that your article is one of the most detailed of those I've read so far. Each section that you discuss is explained very thoroughly. There were just a few minor adjustments I made to your article. There was a broken hyperlink with "Eulaema Bombiformis" that I removed. The article for that species does not exist yet. I also included a hyperlink for "oviposition" because it is an unusual word that comes up repeatedly. The hyperlink would allow readers to access information about it more easily. I also found that the "Nest Initiation and construction" section needs a citation. The first paragraph is not supported by any specific resource. I also question whether the author should have included the scavenging cockroaches in the “Interaction with Other species”. There is obviously not a lot of information on it, as they were only found in one of the 76 nests that the source mentions. There is no interaction described, just the mere presence of them. I think you might want to consider if it might be a choice to leave out that section! Overall I really enjoyed reading this article and was impressed by the depth of detail!Matthewkim93 (talk) 02:43, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestions - I will be expanding on this bee for our next Wiki assignment for our class, and will make the appropriate changes in my next upload of revisions and new sections. Chtsai016 (talk) 21:04, 5 October 2015 CT