Graduate student John Oswald proposes a systematic and biogeographic study of a diverse family of lacewing Neuroptera, the Hemerobiidae. The project will entail comparative study of new collections and museum holdings at the British Museum and Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. The research will result in a clearer understanding of the classification of the 49 genera in the family, and their evolutionary relationships among themselves and with other members of the Order Neuroptera. The project has important implications beyond the specialized area of lacewing systematics. The group may have utility as a natural pest control agent. The biogeographic component of the project will test the most recent method for reconstructing historical patterns of distribution. The resulting evolutionary classification and biogeographic synthesis will be of interest to other entomologists and biogeographers in general.
