Talk:Formica exsecta

Wikipedia Ambassador Program assignment

This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Washington University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2012 Fall term. Further details are available on the course page.

Above message substituted from {{WAP assignment}} on 15:08, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

Behavior

Hello, everyone! I am currently an undergraduate student and have made some edits to this page as part of an assignment. I added a new Behavior section, focusing on the sex allocation of this species. I think that this page could still use a lot more information (maybe some more subheadings?), especially under the Behavior heading. As I am new to Wikipedia, any feedback, both about my edits and future work on this page, would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Jdhale (talk) 01:54, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Comments

Hi I am doing a Wikiproject for school. The article mainly deals with the locations that the rare ant dwells at (Southwest England, Sweden, Tibet). Interestingly, the F. exsecta can either be a monogyne form where the colony has a single egg-laying queen, or a polygyne form where many egg-laying queens are part of the same colony. Unfortunately, there is only one reference on this page. One thing it’s missing is research mentioned in the book, conducted by Sundstom and Boomsma. They compared the sex ratio of eggs of colonies that contained multiply mated females and of eggs in colonies with singly mated queens. The proportion of males decreased significantly between the egg and pupal stages in colonies with singly mated queens, suggesting that the workers are selectively neglecting or destroying males. This manipulation of sex ratio harks back to coefficient of relatedness. Female workers are more related to each other than to their brothers, thus they would want to manipulate the ratio. However, in a colony that has multiply mated females, the female workers can’t tell which are their siblings, so the ratio becomes more even. Under the Talk tab, there isn’t much discussion. Some made the comment that it should not be referred to its common name as “narrow headed ant” because most know it as Formica exsecta. They also point out a little typo (and should’ve been an). Alexliu818 (talk) 19:55, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Washington University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2012 Fall term. Further details are available on the course page.

Above message substituted from {{WAP assignment}} on 15:08, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

Untitled

"F. exsecta is placed in the Formica exsecta group within the genus and is closely related to Formica exsectoides, and American species whose colonies form vast networks."

I can't tell. Is Formica exsectoides an American species, with "and" being a typo for "an"? Or are you trying to say that F. exsecta is related both to Formica exsectoides and to several large-colonied American species of ants?

Yes, "and" was a typo. Thanks for pointing it out. 80.255 00:48, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)

You're welcome. I didn't know whether to fix it or not. Wiwaxia

Inappropriate page moving

This article should be moved back to Formica exsecta. The "common name" is not sufficiently well-used to merit the article's residence under it. The vast majority of people aware of this ant refer to it as Formica exsecta alone. It has various other "common" names too, which are as rarely used as "narrow headed ant". These common names (jncluding "narrow headed") should be mentioned and put on record, but one should not be given undue prominence by being to main namespace, lest wikipedia give a false impression of how this ant is known. 80.255 16:26, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I totally agree. Please move this article to Formica exsecta. 84.179.233.7 17:09, 4 March 2006 (UTC)