Talk:Oriental hornet

Some suggestions

Overall, I found this article to be high quality and well-written. I particularly liked how detailed you were throughout; I really felt like I had a complete understanding of the oriental hornet after reading you article. I made a couple spelling and grammatical changed throughout, which I hope help the article flow better. In addition, I have several suggestions about the structure of this article. Firstly, I would remove the discussion of distribution in the beginning of your article. Since you have a section on distribution later in the article, this is redundant and a little confusing at the start of the article. Similarly, I would remove your first paragraph under behavior. The paragraph serves as an introduction to the species which is not needed because there already is an introduction section at the start of the article. In addition, I think this article could be strengthened by using more scientific diction throughout. For example, in describing the features of the different castes, instead of simply saying that workers and drones are smaller that queens, also say why. Are these morphological differences or genetic differences? Discussion of this could add to the quality of the article. Finally, I think this article could be strengthened by breaking up your section on kin selection. Instead of having a general discussion of altruism, I think it would be a good idea to break this section into relatedness, work-queen conflict, and costs and benefits of sociability. While this article is already strong, I hope adding these suggesting will improve it even more. Some Suggestions[edit source] This article is very strong. Particularly, I felt that your categories were well researched and provided useful and interesting facts about Ropalidia fasciata. While there was not many grammatical changes to be made, I corrected a couple spelling mistakes and combined some shorter sentences throughout to make the article flow better.I also have several additional suggestions. Firstly, I think that you could alter your writing to be less hesitant and more direct. Since you have researched a lot of information on this wasp, you have the authority to make direct fact statement on the species. For instance, instead of saying that "Reproductive suppression does not appear to be a major part.." simply make a direct statement that "reproductive suppression is no a major part..". By changing your writing style to be more direct throughout the article, I believe that your article will appear more credible and have more authority. Another suggestion I have is to increase your discussion about relatedness between individuals in the colony. As you stated in your introduction, the colony does not operate on a single queen system, skewing the typical sex ratios. This should result in some interesting intra-species dynamics. Therefore, under kin selections I suggest adding a sections on relatedness and worker-queen policing to explain how the colony chooses it's queen and why individuals seem to still exhibit altruistic behavior within the nest. Finally, I also think it would be a good idea to elaborate more on what a "foundress" is. Are they just the emigrants from the old colony or are they the first queens of the new colony? Overall, this article is already complete and useful. I hope by implementing my suggestions your article cam be make even better. Amanda.Kalupa (talk)7:30, 1 October, 2014 (UTC)

"its main energy source?"

I've just removed the sentence "In fact, the main metabolic activity occurs in that yellow pigment layer (i.e. the sun may be its main energy source) ". The first part is directly from the BBC-sourced article, but the second misunderstands it. I would expect that the hornet's main energy source would still be "...nectar and sugar-rich plant foods.... (and) various insects..." - it's just that the location where metabolism happens is the yellow pigment layer rather than the "fat body". Snori (talk) 20:25, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

@Snori: While I am not keen enough on the subject to draw my own conclusions; the source do back up that statement. Dr. Marian Plotkin (The entomologist and lead researcher of the study published by the Tel Aviv University) stated: "We have found that the main metabolic activity in the Oriental hornet is actually in the yellow pigment layer".

Refs:

--CyberXRef^☎ 05:00, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

"Metabolic activity" means (roughly) the conversion of food to energy. The article doesn't say that the main source of energy for the insect comes from sunlight and it's unwise to assume this. Snori (talk) 03:04, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

Some suggestions

Good job on your article! It’s pretty detailed for the sections you’ve covered. However, more information could be added for the existing subcategories under “Human Importance.” What’s presented so far seems like an introduction to these aspects of human importance rather than an explanation of why they are relevant. I believe additional information would give a more complete understanding of your species of wasp. I’ve also added a section to this category about antibacterial effects of the venom so people can relate more to why the Oriental hornet would be relevant to human society.

In addition, you could maybe expand more on the ability of the hornet’s cuticle to absorb sunlight. I found this part of your initial description interesting and think it would be a good topic to highlight what’s unique about this wasp! Also, the subsection about communication was well written and thorough in discussing the various types of vibrations used by these hornets.

I hope my feedback was helpful! Good work! Daphne Deng (talk) 11:58, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

General Feedback

I thought overall your article was well worded and contained a good about of clear description and detail. In addition to the feedback you have received from others I have some suggestions about information that could be added in several sections. Under Description and Identification you're last sentence states that Oriental hornets should not be confused with Asian giant hornets or European hornets. I think it would be helpful to have a few sentences or even a subsection of how to differentiate between these three species. Under Distribution you mentioned that Oriental hornets are the only member Vespa genus to live in desert climates. I think that it would be beneficial to add information about what special adaptation or behaviors allow Oriental hornets to live in a desert environment. Under Behavior you wrote about the basics of Dominance Hierarchy but I would be interested to learn how a given individual became queen. Is it size? Is it the first to emerge from hibernation? Do different reproductive females fight to be the reproductive queen? Under Diet I would be interested to learn more about their hunting practices if such research exists. Under Diseases and Plant Infection it would also be nice to have specific names of diseases/fungi/bacteria that are transmitted by wasps. If available information about cures/prevention of these diseases/infections would also be helpful.

In addition to these comments I went through and linked some key words to other articles so that you article might get more traffic. Additionally I noticed that some of your sentences are a bit short and just make the article read a bit choppy. Expanding or linking these sentences might make it flow better. Hope these suggestions help!

Akinjenn (talk) 07:29, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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Removed section on disease transmission

I'm removing two paragraphs that extensively cite a single reference: Abdel-Ghany GM, Zalat SM, Abo-Ghalia AH, Semida FM (January 2009). "VARIATION OF VENOM AND THORACIC MUSCLE PROTEINS OF VESPA ORIENTALIS POPULATIONS IN RELATION TO GEOGRAPHICAL ISOLATION IN SOUTHERN SINAI PROTECTORATES, EGYPT" (PDF). Egyptian Journal of Natural Toxins. 6 (1): 16–32. Retrieved 25 September 2014.

This was in the deleted text:

Since they are scavengers, the hornets can also transmit some serious diseases. They transmit infectious microbes to fruits and other human foods. They may also transmit diseases by attacking infected honey bee hives and then transmitting disease to healthy nests. The hornets may also have harmful effects on plants and crops by transmitting fungi and bacteria from infected plants to healthy plants.

The website of the publisher does not exist anymore and the referenced PDF is nowhere to be found (not even archive.org). All mentionings on the internet of this publication are Wikipedia derivatives. Moreover, the title of the publication doesn't suggest that it's actually about disease transmission.

Han-Kwang (t) 11:56, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that the featured picture File:Vespa orientalis 2.jpg, which is used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for August 11, 2021. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2021-08-11. 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! Cwmhiraeth (talk) 10:59, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

The oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) is a social insect in the family Vespidae, found in southern Europe, northeastern Africa, and western Asia. This worker, photographed in Sha'ar Poleg Reserve in Israel, is gathering nectar from a sea squill; adults will also feed on honeydew and fruit. They also capture insects such as grasshoppers, flies and honey bees to provide a diet high in protein for the colony's brood.

Photograph credit: Gideon Pisanty

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