In search for more efficient and effective ways of mounting very small specimens such as the scale insects, MNH curator Ireneo L. Lit, Jr. and his student Normandy M. Barbecho has been able to develop a modified dish, which they also reported as also useful for those inexperience in handling scale insects.

In the past, the two researchers themselves prepare numerous slide mounts of armored scale insect specimens for examination under a microscope, a long and tedious process. Aside from being laborious, specimen preparation uses toxic chemicals which pose harm to the researchers.

Thirty-nine participants from Angeles University Foundation, Inc., Adamson University, Divine Word College-Legazpi and Laguna State Polytechnic University were able to complete a rigorous short course on methods and analysis for biodiversity field surveys conducted by the UPLB Museum of Natural History last 23-29 April 2016.

The course is an extended introduction to the study of Philippine biodiversity with special focus on standard techniques used in field surveys. It provided in-depth lectures on the principles and related concepts of biodiversity and conservation and offered the hands-on application of field survey methods.

The UPLB Museum of Natural History recently launched a simple photo exhibit of selected Philippine native trees in celebration of Earth Day 2016 last 22 April 2016.

With the theme “Trees for the Earth,” the exhibit was inspired by the monumental publication “Shades of Majesty” that highlights 88 species of Philippine native trees most of which are listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Philippine Red Data Book. “Shades of Majesty” was authored by MNH curator Prof. Pastor L. Malabrigo, Jr.

The Museum’s refereed scientific journal Museum Publications in Natural History has just released its 2015 volume, which focused on the theme “Cave and Karst Biodiversity.”

The four regular articles and two research notes published in the issue were on bats, spiders, mites, macrofungi, cave crickets and cockroaches in cave and karst areas in Marinduque, Laguna and the Polillo Islands in Quezon. All of the articles can be freely downloaded from the journal’s site hosted by journals.uplb.edu.ph.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences (UT GSALS), UPLB College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and the UPLB Museum of Natural History (MNH) collaborated once again to document the presence of zoonotic viruses in Philippine bats by conducting a fieldwork in Mabini, Pangasinan from 22-24 February 2016. 

Bats are potential reservoir for emerging diseases since they are capable of transmitting zoonotic viral diseases. "In 2004 in fact, the Hendra virus which killed both horses and humans in Australia has been proven to be transmitted by fruit bats," Dr. Joseph S. Masangkay, Professor Emeritus at CVM and MNH Curator said. Dr. Masangkay leads the Philippine side of the research team.

Bats captured in Mt. Makiling last February 2015 and studied by a team of researchers from five Japanese institutions, UPLB College of Veterinary Medicine and the Museum of Natural History were found to harbor protozoa that can cause gastrointestinal infections.

Protozoan parasites are common causes of many diseases in both domestic and wild animals, as well as in humans. Bats are naturally infected with zoonotic pathogens and two genera of these, the Cryptosporidium and Eimeria, were detected either solely or in tandem in most of the bat species collected in four sampling sites inside the UPLB campus.