World Neuropterida Metakey
An Interactive Index to the Identification Keys of the Extant and Fossil
Neuroptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera and Glosselytrodea
(Insecta: Neuropterida) of the World
John D. Oswald
Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-2475 USA
Introduction Scope Search Terminal Taxon Search
Abstract: Metadata that characterize >4000 separate identification keys that contain terminal taxa currently placed in the insect orders Neuroptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera, and/or Glosselytrodea are organized and delivered as a “metakey”—an interactive index to the global corpus of Neuropterida identification keys designed to help individuals discover and access keys that match their needs. The set of keys included in the metakey is believed to represent a substantial majority of the keys that have been published to date, worldwide, to identify neuropterid insects to genus level or below. For each included key, data have been captured about its geographic and taxonomic scopes; the sexes and life stages that it treats; its language, format, and number of couplets; and its location in the literature (reference citation, year of publication, and first page of key). Each key has also been scored for the scientific names and ranks of its Neuropterida terminal taxa (>25,000 in total). Interactive search functionality is provided that enables the display of lists of keys that match user-input criteria from one or more of these metadata axes. Terminal taxa may be searched using the scientific names originally included in each key, or by their current scientific names in the Lacewing Digital Library standard taxonomy. Direct links to digital copies of publications containing keys are provided where available and permissible.
Cite this Publication as: Oswald, J. D. World Neuropterida Metakey. Lacewing Digital Library, Research Publication No. 5. https://lacewing.tamu.edu/Metakey/Main. Accessed on [fill in date of last site access].
(Note: The different modules of the Lacewing Digital Library are individually authored, constitute distinct publications, and should be cited separately. For information on the current version and release of this publication see the Versions page.)
Author Contact Information: (JDO, corresponding author) j-oswald@tamu.edu.
Keywords: insect identification, identification keys