Niels Peder Kristensen

Professor, curator

Natural History Museum of Denmark
Universitetsparken 15
2100 København Ø

Office: 11, 2-4-441
Phone: +45 353-21113
Phone (Reception desk): +45 353-22222
E-mail: npkristensen@snm.ku.dk

Primary research areas

Curatorial responsibilities: Apterygote hexapods, exopterygote insects (excl. Hemiptera-Heteroptera), smaller endopterygote orders, Lepidoptera

Current research

My long-standing principal interests are Lepidoptera structure and evolution, as well as comparative anatomy and phylogeny of high-rank insect clades. My empirical research has largely focused on the structure and evolution of 'basal' Lepidoptera (i.e., those lineages that evolved in the first several splitting events that can be resolved from a study of the known fauna) and other basal endopterygotes. Ongoing projects include

1) A review of the Afrotropical Micropterigidae, including the treatment of a still-undescribed ‘species swarm’ in Madagascar. (With D. Lees, NHM, London, G. W. Gibbs, Victoria Univ., Wellington and D. R. Davis, USNMNH, Smithsonian Institution).

2) A comprehensive structural/phylogenetic/taxonomic/biological treatment of the endemic New Zealand family Mnesarchaeidae. This small moth family is of outstanding interest, being an insect counterpart of ‘the tuatara case’ in ‘reptiles’ – with a N.Zealand endemic taxon being the sister group of a species-rich cosmopolitan taxon; in the mnesarchaeid case this sister group is the superfamily Hepialoidea. So far 14 mnesarchaeid species are known – half of them to be described in our forthcoming monograph. (With G.W. Gibbs, Victoria Univ., Wellington, and B. Wiegmann, N Carolina State Univ., Raleigh).

3) A taxonomic review of the Old World Eriocraniidae, the first differentiated glossatan lineage and the only exclusively Holarctic family of homoneurous moths (With O. Karsholt, ZMUC, M. Mutanen, Univ, Oulu and M.Kozlov, Univ. Turku), supplemented with anatomical work on the female genitalia (with F. Hünefeld, Univ. Jena). 

4) A taxonomic revision, accompanying an account of adult visceral/genital anatomy (with F. Hünefeld, Univ. Jena) and larval trunk design (with S. Dupont) of the austral S.American family Heterobathmiidae, the most recently discovered high-rank lineage in the Lepidoptera.

5) A review article on the 'History of Insect Classification' (with M.S. Engel, Univ Kansas, Lawrence)

High priority forthcoming projects include (apart from smaller ad hoc studies describing systematically/morphologically/biogeographically exciting newly discovered taxa of homoneurous moths)
A) a comprehensive structural account (with a genus-level revision) of the Micropterigidae - the putative sistergroup of all other Lepidoptera.
B) Ultrastructure of ocelli of adult homoneurous moths.

C) An inquiry into the evolution of the maxillary base, its extrinsic musculature and its phylogenetic significance in glossatan Lepidoptera. While the initial evolution of the coilable lepidopteran proboscis was accompanied by little (perhaps surprisingly little) modification of the maxillary base and the extrinsic maxillary musculature, very different configurations are prevalent in higher Ditrysia. Where did the major changes occur? Is a transformation series with several steps recognizable? What is the phylogenetic information content of this transformation?
D) Ultrastructure of spermatozoa of monotrysian heteroneurous moths.

These projects are all planned as collaborative undertakings with co-authors in Denmark and abroad.