Talk:Polistes gallicus

	Insects portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Insects, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of insects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.InsectsWikipedia:WikiProject InsectsTemplate:WikiProject InsectsInsects articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Hymenoptera task force (assessed as Low-importance).

This article was the subject of an educational assignment in Fall 2014. Further details were available on the "Education Program:Washington University in St. Louis/Behavioral Ecology (Fall 2014)" page, which is now unavailable on the wiki.

Peer Review

The paragraph that is there could be read as stating that the reason why there is really no information on this species is that when ecologists or whoever were studying P. gallicus, they were mistaking it for another species and giving the other species credit for the actions of P. gallicus. If that is the case, documents to be gone over again and both species need to be identified and then re-observed. Zroscope (talk) 23:46, 11 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! I changed the structure of this article in several ways to improve organization, most notably moving all of the information on nesting from under the description heading to under the habitat/distribution heading, as it seemed more appropriate. There are some extraneous sentences, such as “The wasps build their nests in various conditions,” from the initial description, but I chose not to delete them because I didn't want to eliminate something the main author viewed as essential. I also reorganized and reworded the section on parasites specifically, as there we some fragments, misspellings, and confusing wording. Over all, the article was written in a clear and informative way! I would suggest adding some additional information on Van der Vecht chemicals and how these wasps communicate if possible. Do they use these chemicals to communicate other things, or different methods? Great job! Kellykries (talk) 20:10, 2 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I really enjoyed reading your article! I thought that your introductory summary was very well structured and a nice over view of the species. Under Description and identification you stated that P. gallicus is smaller than other native Polistes. To help illustrate this point as well as provided a more thorough description of the species it would be nice to have some measurements. I would recommend also including the measurements of other Polistes species to demonstrate the comparison. Under Taxonomy and phylogeny you mention that P. gallicus is almost indistinguishable from P. dominula. Since they are different providing details about how you can tell them apart would be really helpful. Similarly, under Defense you talk about how Polistes communicate with each other through vibrational and visual signals but getting more details or specifics about these communication techniques would be really interesting. Throughout your article I added commas and rearranged sentence structure a bit. I also linked several words such as anaphylaxis so that your article will get more traffic. Providing in text references also helps readers with complex terms or jargon they may not know. Overall great job! Akinjenn (talk) 03:43, 19 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Throughout your article, I made some grammatical changes that promoted an active voice, rather than a passive one. When you are writing articles, make sure that you use verbs in the present tense, otherwise you are indicating that these behaviors might have changed over time. On occasion, I italicized species names and made them lowercase if they were uppercase. Sometimes, there would be vague statements or statements that didn't explain what you were talking about: "Due to the extensive range Polistes gallicus resides, this species survives in a variety of climates and habitats.” I removed it and suggest that you include a section on what allows this species to live in variable conditions. In terms of additions, I saw that one of your sentences read “…some nests reporting as many as 500." I assumed you meant cells, so I went back to your previous source, confirmed that it was cells, and added that to your article. Lastly, there were some turns of phrases that I corrected.

What I suggest you might want to do is add some more basic sections such as "Diet" and "Anatomy." While you provide some really interesting information on Van der Vecht chemicals and Queen-Worker conflicts, adding a couple simple sections will be useful to more basic researchers. Other than that, your article contained interesting information on a variety of topics from credible sources. Peter Eivaz (talk) 20:37, 2 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I really liked that this article did cover a variety of topics and was well organized, although it could benefit from a few improvements. Most of my edits were considered with grammar and structure of paragraphs. For example, I edited the section "Taxonomy and Phylogeny" so that the short sentences were combined into larger, complex sentences. Also, within this same section, there were several instances where the species name or the abbreviation were not italicized so I fixed the code for that. On this talk page, I also added the course banner. Finally, I suggest deciding whether or not to italicize "Polistes" because there was discordance within the article. Samontenegro (talk) 03:21, 3 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Overall, the Wikipedia article on Polistes gallicus is well put together. The article could be improved by making a separate category for nesting, which is currently in the introduction. Adding a section on life cycle would also allow greater insight to the reasons for behavior and instill an aspect of time. Finally, as we are discussing social insects, more can be added on the hierarchy of the species, as although the article suggests that there is a queen ("dominant wasp" and "dominant female", that and the specific roles the queen and other wasps play is not covered. PhonoxClassic(talk) 11:21, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Genetic Relatedness within Colonies

Does anyone have access to the paper cited for the Kin Selection sub-section "Genetic Relatedness within Colonies"?

The paragraph on it is at best confusing, but I don't want to go in making what appear to be obvious corrections that will also be incorrect.

Main point though: "As a result, the queen to worker male relatedness is 1/2. This is higher than the relatedness of two worker brothers, which is 1/4." Male workers don't exist, and also get 100% of their genetic material from their mother (the queen). Female offspring of the queen (both workers and reproductives/gynes) share 50% of their DNA with the queen. Hedge89 (talk) 22:39, 9 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Strepsipteran ?

I have made the same comment on the page of the file itself, but I have to say the so called Strepsipteran male show in the "Parasite" section is definitely not one. The file must have been mislabelled. I'm not 100% sure what it is, but would suggest order Psocoptera, which doens't count any wasp parasite I think. It would be better to remove the picture or change it I think. StrepsipZerg (talk) 18:58, 1 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Comment on Description and identification

In Description and identification the article says "It is relatively small in size compared to other native Polistes species". What does this native mean? It appears this is written for a specific geographic perspective where polistes gallicus is introduced and that it is smaller than the native polistes (meaning, smaller than the polistes present before the introduction). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1811:142E:B200:D02C:6C3F:A5A9:514D (talk) 17:39, 13 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Distribution map in the species box

For Germany, the distribution map is misleading. Please see c:File:Distribution Map of Polistes gallicus.png for a detailed comment (including references) on the issue caused by confusing taxonomy. (Whether or not the issue extends to other Central-European countries as well should probably be verified.) -- Martinus KE (talk) 15:25, 2 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Wespe auf_Blütenblättern-20200905-RM-081907.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for October 1, 2023. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2023-10-01. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! — Amakuru (talk) 09:34, 28 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Polistes gallicus is a species of paper wasp found in a region from the Alps south into northwest Africa and east to Croatia and Corfu. It can live in a range of temperatures including warmer climates and cooler regions north of the Alps, with nests created in these various conditions. A social insect, the species uses an oral secretion to construct its nests, which consist of a combination of saliva and chewed plant fibers. This structural mixture physically protects the nest from various harsh elements and from weathering over time. Like other members of the subgenus Polistes, P. gallicus has recognizable bright yellow and black markings. It has a smaller body than many others from the genus that overlap in range. This P. gallicus individual was photographed in Bavaria, Germany.

Photograph credit: Reinhold Möller

Recently featured: