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John D. Oswald

Title: Associate Professor and Curator

Education:

Program Description:

My research program focuses on the systematics, taxonomy and biology of the insect superorder Neuropterida (orders Neuroptera, Megaloptera and Raphidioptera). Over the past several years my major research activities, primarily NSF funded, have focused on organismal bioinformatics projects, including the development of globalscale, web-based, publications such as the Bibliography of the Neuropterida (a global neuropterid digital library project) and the Index to the Neuropterida Species of the World (a global neuropterid species catalog project).

As the Curator (director) of the Texas A&M University Insect Collection I have primary responsibility for the financial support and development of this collection, including both specimen and digital data collections. My teaching program is concerned with various aspects of insect biodiversity and systematics, insect evolution and entomological field studies, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Over the past several years I have developed several new courses in these areas. My primary service activities involve representing the entomological sciences to the Texas A&M University libraries, where I have served as the departmental library representative and on university library councils. Over the past several years I have been instrumental in the library’s acquisition of more than $300,000 in special purchases of entomological materials, which have built substantial new historical depth and geographic breadth in the university’s holdings of entomological monographs and serials.

Teaching Activities

ENTO 485 Undergraduate Directed Studies Spring 2004, Fall 2006
ENTO 489 Sp. Top. Field Entomology Fall 2004, Fall 2005
ENTO 689 Sp. Top. Visualizing Biodiversity Summer II 2004
ENTO 691 Graduate Research 2003/2004, 2004/2005, 2005/2006
ENTO 491 Undergraduate Research Fall 2006
ENTO 689 Sp. Top. Insect Biodiversity and Biology Spring 2005
ENTO 689 Sp. Top. Insect Evolution Spring 2005

 

Selected Publications:

Oswald, J. D.; Contreras-Ramos, A.; Penny, N. D. 2002. Neuroptera (Neuropterida). Pp. 559-581in: Bousquets, J. L.; Morrone, J. J. (Eds.). Biodiversidad, Taxonomía y Biogeografía de Artrópodos de México: Hacia una Síntesis de su Conocimiento. Vol. 3. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Ren, D.; Oswald, J. 2002. A new genus of kalligrammatid lacewings from the Middle Jurassic of China (Neuroptera: Kalligrammatidae). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde [aus dem Staatlichen Museum fur Naturkunde in Stuttgart] (B)317:1-8.

Makarkin, V. N.; Archibald, S. B.; Oswald, J. D. 2003. New early Eocene brown lacewings (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae) from western North America. Canadian Entomologist 135:637-653.

Oswald, J. D. 2003. Index to the Neuropterida Species of the World. URL: http://insects.tamu.edu/research/neuropterida/neur_sp_index/ins_search.html [An NSF-supported, webdelivered, catalogue of the extant and fossil Neuropterida species of the world. Contains taxonomic and nomenclatural data pertaining to 9244 species-group names in the insect orders Neuroptera, Megaloptera and Raphidioptera.]

Oswald, J. D. 2004. Review of the brown lacewing genus Biramus (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae: Hemerobiinae), with the description of a new species from Costa Rica and Panama. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 147:41-47.

Ohl, M.; Oswald, J. D. 2004. Annotated list of the primary type specimens of Megaloptera and Raphidioptera (Insecta: Neuropterida) in the Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 51:87-96.

Miller, G. L.; Oswald, J. D.; Miller, D. R. 2004. Lacewings and scale insects: a review of predator/prey associations between the Neuropterida and Coccoidea (Insecta: Neuroptera, Raphidioptera, Hemiptera). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 97:1103-1125. [23 pages]

Ohl, M.; Oswald, J. D. 2004. Annotated catalog of the Mantispidae of the world (Neuroptera). Contributions on Entomology, International 5:131-262. [132 pages]

Oswald, J. D. 2002-2006 (6 versions). Bibliography of the Neuropterida : A Working Bibliography and Digital Library of the Literature of the Extant and Fossil Neuroptera, Megaloptera, and Raphidioptera (Insecta: Neuropterida) of the World. URL: http://insects.tamu.edu/research/neuropterida/neur_bibliography/bibhome.html. [An NSF-supported, webdelivered, research digital library project serving the global neuropterological community. The most recent version includes 11,442 citations, and 2020 linked digital files containing >21,600 digital pages of the primary scientific literature on the insect superorder Neuropterida.]