Molecular and Morphological Systematics of (original) (raw)

Libelluloidea are highly successful dragonflies with unique behavior and life histories. The systematics of Libelluloidea (Odonata: Anisoptera) has iv Acknowledgement and/or Dedication I would like to thank my husband Jeremy, my daughter Aeshna, my beloved dog Spider and my twin Syrus for their unfaltering support throughout my PhD work. Without them I would had difficulty overcoming the inevitable setbacks, wrong turns and confusion that seem to be a natural part of the academic process. I would also like to thank my best friend and labmate, Dana Price, for her thoughtful conversations about all things entomological and phylogenetic (or otherwise) throughout the last five years. I am deeply indebted to Leslie May for her thoughtfulness, caring, compassion, encouragement, humor, and support, which have become such a welcome aspect of my family's life here at Rutgers. I would like to thank Karl Kjer and Mike May for their advisement and encouragement regarding both my thesis work and extracurricular affairs. I'm also very grateful to them for supporting my travel to Australia and Namibia, both of which were remarkable opportunities in terms of dragonfly collecting and personal growth. Thank you to Kim Bloodsworth and Dana Price, for their friendship and maternal support since the birth of their goddaughter, Aeshna. Thanks very much to Lashon Ware for her sisterly advice and cheerleading. To my godparents Betty and Archie McGugan, I am thankful for long-distance encouragement and all of the dragonfly books! Caren, Jessica and Leah v Huff, the Shaws and the Gullettes have been a wonderful source of inspiration and enthusiasm, for which I am very indebted. I would like to acknowledge the Ware Irons family for their insistence, from an early age, that I go to graduate school to get my Ph. D-which I finally did! Last but not least, several fellow dragonfly lovers (enthusiasts and academics alike) were encouraging and supportive throughout my work, for which I am very grateful. I'd like to acknowledge some of them here (although I am thankful to so many more than there is room to list). I am especially grateful to Ken & Sandy Tennessen, Günther & Christine Theischinger, Stas & Lena Gorb and Jerry and Christine Louton, for welcoming me into their homes and providing specimens, advice and discussion; Dennis Paulson, for his thorough and thoughtful commentary about my phylogenies and flight behavior project; Seth Bybee and Erik Pilgrim for advice, discussion, support, encouragement, and for being such wonderful colleagues. The following chapters were previously published in peer-reviewed journals: