Cristian Lucañas, research associate at the UPLB Museum of Natural History, has just recently published in the Journal of Natural History (https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2021.1928317) a new genus of cockroach, Bundoksia, along with a new species under it. The new genus, according to Lucanas, is placed in the Family Blattidae, but due to conflicting characters, weren't classified to any subfamily.

The new genus Bundoksia, according to Lucañas, is actually a result of a taxonomic resolution of a species which has been described more than a century ago.

"In 1910, British entomologist Robert Walter Campbell Shelford described a species of cockroach from the Philippines based on a single female specimen and named it Blatta rufocercata," he recounted.

"No additional specimens were collected after that and its name remained unchanged until Kārlis Princis, a Latvian-Swedish entomologist, transferred B. rufocercata to a mostly African genus, Cartoblatta, based on the shortened wings of the female," Lucañas explained.

In a new article published in Check List (https://doi.org/10.15560/17.3.917), museum researchers co-wrote a new record of the presence of Hoya sipitangensis in the Philippines, specifically, Palawan Island. The team included UPLB assistant professor Marjorie D. delos Angeles and MNH research associate Cristian C. Lucañas and curator Prof. Annalee S. Hadsall.

According Hadsall, H. sipitangensis was only previously reported from where they were originally found - Sipitang, Sabah, Borneo; and Seria, Belait, Brunei.

“In Borneo, it was discovered in 2002 and named as H. sipitangensis; while in Brunei, it was first named as H. yapianum in 2010” she clarified. In 2016, however, H. yapianum was synonymized to H. sipitangensis on the basis that “the differences are part of the natural variation of the latter.”

“While on fieldwork in Palawan, we saw H. sipitangensis among branches of trees which formed dense canopies,” Prof. Marjorie D. delos Angeles, a botanist from the UPLB Institute of Biological Sciences and lead author of the new record said.

Researchers from the UPLB Museum of Natural History discussed their objectives and plans during the launching on 14 June 2021 of the Center for Cave Ecosystems Research (CAVES) Program which is being funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) NICER Program.

Led by Dr. Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez, museum curator for birds and CAVES program leader, the project proponents gave overviews on the general focus of their respective researches.

Dr. Ireneo L. Lit, Jr., curator for scale insects and other terrestrial arthropods and CAVES Project 3 leader, gave an introduction to cave ecology and biodiversity research. He discussed on caves in the biological sense and the effect of light availability and temperature on the presence and lives of organisms inside caves.

“Because of unique conditions inside caves, the become refuge for several unique species and because the Philippines has an estimated 1,500-2,000 caves, they are considered as unique, natural and non-renewable resources with very important scientific, economic, educational, cultural, historical and aesthetic values,” he said.

In simple ceremonies held via videoconferencing, the UPLB Museum of Natural History, with the support of its partners and stakeholders, launched today the Center for Cave Ecosystems Research (CAVES), a three-year, P 40M research program funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) NICER Program.

The NICER (Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D) Program is a component of the Science for Change Program (S4CP) of the DOST which aims to accelerate the capacity building of R&D institutions and industrial competitiveness in the regions.

The opening program was attended by key officials from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR)-CALABARZON and more than 150 participants from the academe and government sectors.

A new book on Philippine spiders, focusing on the orb-weavers of the Family Araneidae, has been written and recently published by Dr. Aimee Lynn B. Dupo, MNH curator for spiders and moths and her co-authors Dr. Alberto T. Barrion and Mr. Joseph R. Rasalan.

Dr. Barrion is currently a faculty at De Salle University in Taft, Manila who has been connected to the Museum as an adjunct curator. Meanwhile, Mr. Rasalan is a regular museum volunteer and currently a project staff in the museum's ongoing digitization project.

The almost 100-page book is a long-awaited, physical manifestation of the more than five years of collecting and curating spider images and natural history data by the authors alongside passionate citizen scientists on social media. It presents 56 species of Philippine orb weavers and the authors hope to build upon the current work in the coming years.

Norman Greenhawk, a 2021-2024 Fulbright Specialist and partner of the UPLB Museum of Natural History (MNH) on a pilot amphibian breeding initiative at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), recently received a grant from the National Geographic Society.

Greenhawk’s grant from the NGS will enable him to do more research in order to conserve the Philippine endemic frog Platymantis insulatus of the Gigantes Islands as a 2021 National Geographic Explorer. By partnering with UPLB MNH curators Dr. Leticia Afuang, Dr. Juan Carlos Gonzalez, and Dr. Marian De Leon, Greenhawk hopes to establish Project Palaka Phase II, an ex-situ breeding population of Platymantis insulatus, the only IUCN Critically-Endangered amphibian species in the Philippines.