Examining the Russian Wikipedia's Entomology Project

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This week, we took a look at the Russian-language WikiProject Entomology. Started in October 2008, WikiProject Entomology builds and organizes articles about insects. We interviewed Anaxibia

What motivated you to join WikiProject Entomology? Do you have an academic background in entomology?

Hello, my name is Andrey. I'm from Ukraine, but writing on the Russian Wikipedia. I'm 27 years old and am a surgeon. I do not have an academic education for entomology, but I've been interested in it and collecting insects from age seven. My interest in insects began after I read the Extraordinary Adventures of Karik and Valya, where in a fascinating adventure the writer educates about plants and insects. This children's book is probably little known to Western readers, but it is widely read in the post-USSR territories. I first joined WikiProject Entomology four or five years ago. I was prompted by several factors: the very poor quality of featured articles (at that time), the many important topics without articles—even about some common species, the desire to share information not only about common insects, but many ordinary and extraordinary, rare species for which information is not sufficiently accessible to Russian-language readers, and the generally poor, untrue, and frankly low-grade information on scientific topics on the Internet, TV, and newspaper articles written by semi-literate journalists not versed in the topics. Wikipedia is perfect for me because it is designed for a very wide range of people—nature lovers, naturalists beginners or students, as well as professional ecologists and conservationists and many others.

Have you contributed to any of the project's Featured or Good Articles? What are some of the challenges involved with improving articles about insects to Featured or Good Article status?

I have personally written two featured articles (Coleoptera and Lepidoptera), three good articles (Cerambycidae, Lucanus cervus, Death's-head hawk moth), and three featured lists (about insects of the red book of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus). In collaboration with Lasius, I've helped write two additional featured articles: ant and insect). These two articles were elected "article of the year" on biological topics in the Russian Wikipedia in 2011 and 2013, respectively. I want to add that the article Beetles, Insects and Ants at this moment are one of the best among similar articles of all language wiki projects—for complete information, on the degree of novelty, full disclosure issues.

Challenges involved with improving articles about insects to Featured or Good Article status are having only a small number of active users in the Entomology project, few scientific publications are published in the Russian language, the need to translate information from other languages, and missing out on necessary illustrations.

Do your Wikipedia contributions focus on specific taxonomic orders of insects? How well has insect taxonomy been covered by articles at the Russian Wikipedia?

My Wikipedia contributions focus on lepidoptera & coleoptera species, and on unusual, extraordinary, and interesting insect species. In general taxonomy is satisfactorily covered as there are articles about all major taxonomic groups. Not all of them are perfect, some needs work, but they are complete. I also review and update articles to conform to the latest information. But systematics and classification in some cases remains controversial.

Has it been difficult to find images, videos or audio recordings of insects for Wikipedia articles? Can the average Wikipedia editor help contribute illustrations of insects?

Wikiconmmons images exist for many known species. Some of them, unfortunately, are of poor quality, others are pictures from old books about nature. Deficit images available for little-known wide range of readers, or rare species. Big help in searching for images has Flickr - Photo Sharing. Many quality photos were uploaded from the Museum de Toulouse collection of entomology by Didier Descouens (Archaeodontosaurus), and from Flickr - photos of Udo Schmidt ([1]). I have a collection of tropical butterflies and beetles, and also by ability upload photos of species that are not found on the Commons.

Do you collaborate with scientific institutions, societies or journals in the field of entomology?

I personally do not have the opportunity to collaborate with scientific institutions, societies or journals in the field of entomology, but I do communicate with several professional entomologists from Ukraine, Russia, England, France and Thailand.

Does WikiProject Entomology collaborate with any other WikiProjects? What can be done to increase collaboration between WikiProjects on the Russian Wikipedia and beyond?

We collaborate with many other WikiProjects, including WikiProject Biology and WikiProject Chemistry.

Have you contributed to any other language editions of Wikipedia or to other Wikimedia projects? Are there any articles or resources the Russian Wikipedia could share with them?

I regularly fix errors and mistakes on the English Wikipedia and mistakes species names on the Wikimedia Commons. The articles on beetle, insect, and ants at this moment are among the best for similar articles of all language wiki projects—for complete information, on the degree of novelty, and full disclosure issues.

What are the most urgent needs of WikiProject Entomology? How can a new contributor help today?

WikiProject Entomology most urgently needs to create missing articles (including articles on entomology that the English Wikipedia has and the Russian Wikipedia does not) and add more quality photos of insects. New contributors can help today: create the missing articles, improve stubs, identify insects on photos, and add new photos.

Next week, we'll revisit a project we featured seven years ago. Until then, explore our long and storied history in the archive.

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Interesting to hear about the insets in other parts of the world! Jee 05:00, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]