User:Minorax

Hello everyone, I'm Minorax. I've been editing the English Wikipedia for slightly over 5 years now and usually patrol Special:NewPages and find files that can be moved to Commons.

As a global sysop, I patrol small wikis and help out with administrative stuff there, typically finding x-wiki socks and reverting vandalism. For a list of other user rights, see m:User:Minorax/matrix.

If you have any queries or require assistance on wikis that have the GS-toolset enabled, do not hesitate to contact me.

Laothoe populi, the poplar hawk-moth, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species is found throughout the Palearctic realm and the Near East, and is one of the most common members of the family in the region. On first hatching, the larvae are pale green with small yellow tubercules and a cream-coloured tail horn, at which point they are known as hornworms. They later develop yellow diagonal stripes on the sides, and pink spiracles. This photograph, taken in Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont, France, shows a late instar of L. populi.

James and Margret Reed of the Donner Party

The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who set out for California in a wagon train, but became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains in November 1846. Running out of food, some resorted to cannibalism to survive. The journey west usually took between four and six months, but the Donner Party had been slowed by following a new route called the Hastings Cutoff, which crossed the Rocky Mountains' Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Lake Desert in present-day Utah. They lost many cattle and wagons in the rugged terrain, and divisions formed within the group. Their food supplies ran low after they became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall high in the mountains. In mid-December some of the group set out on foot and were able to obtain help. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California. Historians have described the episode as one of the most spectacular tragedies in California history. (Full article...)