Commons talk:WikiProject Insects
Hi all
I'm really unsure where this should go, so feel free to move it somewhere else. I've only recently developed a (minor!) interest in insecta, primarily based on finding out what my cheap toy-quality snap shot camera could do (if I take 100 snapshots of an insect there is a fair chance of ending up with one or two of 'usable quality' for commons ;o).
Looking at this project from my point of view (my needs to make it easier for me to contribute snapshots) I would say that my personal primary need would be to have better access to help in determination of what the heck critter it is that I accidentally got in front of my lens.
Something along the lines of de:Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Lebewesen/Bestimmung would be helpful, but I've also started (a very rudimentary!!) project of my own where I'm collecting links, bibliography and other resources that could be helpful in determining what critter it is I have on a photo. I was planning to work these pages into something like "the ultimate resource on determining xxxx", where xxxx could be as wide as "Insects" or "Butterflies" or as specific as "Ruby-Tailed wasps" or "Ladybirds" or whatever.
The idea being to start at a page "Flora and Fauna" that lists resources at that level of generality with "sections" or "chapters" on that page for subgroups with more specific resources for that subgroup and whenever enough resources are gathered to justify this to give the subgroub it's own page. So eventually there will be a page "Resources for determination of Opiliones" that lists the known resources for that group which is a child of a more general page, maybe listing more general resources for all sorts of spider-like critters. These pages are really nothing to be demonstrated, just a collection of some very few personal links and books but if you care to take a look you may find them here (all in dutch): nl:Gebruiker:Pudding4brains/ZoekFnF or nl:Gebruiker:Pudding4brains/ZoekSpin
Next thing to do would be to compile good information on how to distinguish one subspecies or whatever from the other and select photos to show the differences and/or leave 'dummy'/blank-photos that state what should be shown as a clear photo request. I've recently played with that idea a little on nl:Klein_koolwitje#Herkennen (no real usable contents yet), but that is not the way to go as it should be duplicated on the pages for all the various comparable critters. It would probably be better to have that "Help in determination" one level higher, but then the fine differences between the three or four really hard to distinguish species could get lost in an abundance of species that all fit in the higher level article?? Also, the dutch wikipedia is hardly a good place ;o) But where should such "help in determination" sections/pages go then??
These are just some ideas of course, but if you have any suggestions how we could go about assembling this kind of helper information together I would be more than willing to contribute what little I can (time mostly, as my knowledge is near 0).
Some other question I have are these:
- This project is called "Insects" although the guidelines for the tree of life actually state we should use scientific names?? Shouldn't it be "Insecta" then?
- The tree of life does have a Wikiproject for Insects but not for Arthropoda. Are these for the sake of the project all considered to be "Insects" or are spiders and such not included??
Well, so much for now .... Cheers Pudding4brains 00:00, 18 September 2006 (UTC)