Museum curator for small mammals Prof. Phillip A. Alviola, junior researcher James DV. Alvarez and two former MNH thesis students in the persons of Frex Dimaculangan and Daniel Dave Bernaldez represented the Museum during the 4th Southeast Asian Bat Conferene (SEABCO) held last 6-9 August 2018 at the L'Fisher Hotel, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

SEABCO 2018 is an international conference initiated by the Southeast Asian Bat Conservation and Research Unit (SEABCRU) in partnership with the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PBCFI). The conference convened bat researchers, experts, conservationists and students from over 14 countries worldwide, mostly from the southeast Asian region.

The conference included student and expert presentations on seven different themes: species diversity and monitoring surveys, cave bat ecology and conservation, bats in disturbed landscapes, acoustics, bat-plant interactions and flying fox conservation, bat-arthropod interactions, and taxonomy, systematics and evolution. Posters on different aspects of bat taxonomy and ecology were also presented.

Around fifty personnel from the 13 regional offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as well as the DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) are now attending a "Training on Wildlife Conservation and Management: Species Identification, Handling and Management Techniques of Amphibians and Reptiles with the assistance of curators, staff and students affiliated with the UPLB Museum of Natural History (MNH).

The training, being held by the DENR-BMB with the generous funding support of the USAID Wildlife Protect Project, commenced last 31 July at the SEAMEO-SEARCA headquarters here in UPLB, College, Laguna will conclude in two weeks.

A new species of web spinner (Embioptera) was recently discovered from foothills of Mt. Makiling and is named Aposthonia merdelynae. The species was named after Dr. Merdelyn Cassi-Lit, wife of the former MNH Director Dr. Ireneo L. Lit, Jr, for "her contributions to the knowledge of insect-plant interactions".

Embioptera are small insects with silk glands in their front legs for creating silken galleries where they live in. "In Mt. Makiling, they are commonly found nesting on bark trees", Lucanas described. A. merdelynae is the third member of the genus that is native to the Philippines. 

In an article released online by The Philippine Entomologist (Vol 31, No. 1), UPLB MNH curators Dr. Aimee Lynn A. Barrion-Dupo and Dr. Alberto T. Barrion discover three new species of Deinopidae and the record of its type genus Deinopis Macleay, 1839 in the Philippines.

Ogre-faced spiders (Deinopidae) is a small family of spiders which specialize in casting an expandable silk mesh to catch small insects. According to the authors, these spiders have distinctly large front eyes resembling those of ogres that give them a monster-like appearance. They are also called "net-casting spiders" because of their behavior in capturing prey.

A lack of online presence can severely limit a person’s visibility in today's technology and information-driven world. This is very true especially for scientists, researchers and even young professionals who are trying to earn their place in the academe.

"Using social media and networks to improve your online visibility and at the same time highlight the things you are working on may not be enough for you to get noticed," said Florante A. Cruz, a development communication practitioner from the UPLB Museum of Natural History replied when asked on why the Museum decided to hold a training recently on e-portfolio building for several graduate students.

Museum researchers led by Director Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez and extension specialist Florante A. Cruz again provided technical assistance to the local government unit of Sta. Teresita, Cagayan by surveying the biodiversity of areas targeted by the town for development as ecotourism spots. The museum team is composed of people with expertise in birds, bats, insects and other wildlife, geology and development communication.

The team were in Sta. Teresita town from 27-29 February and visited Bangalau Lake, Tabaco, Bangalau, Ari-Zero and Maquera Caves located in three barangays. Sta. Teresita is dominated by karst landscapes and is home to at least 60 caves, waters of which drain to the lake where bakong (Hanguana malayana), an aquatic plant the town has tapped for their fiber-based cottage industries excellently thrives. Sta. Teresita is also a migratory stop for quite a number of birds which start to arrive every month of September.