An extraordinary jade vine collected by Museum of Natural History botanists in February 2015 from Mulanay, Quezon in Luzon has just become the newest species of Strongylodon in the Philippines.

The new species, Strongylodon juangonzalezii Hadsall, Alejado & Cajano obtained from the Buenavista Protected Landscape in Mulanay has been described in an article now available in PhytoKeys (http://phytokeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=10055).

In the article, the authors reported that the “new species is remarkable for its plagiotropic dense inflorescence made up of 27–31 flowers per cluster in a lateral branch. The flowers are lilac when young, then gradually turn blue when mature.”

Two new species of eneopterine crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Eneopterinae) have been recently described by Jessica B. Baroga, Dr. Sheryl A. Yap and Dr. Tony Robillard in an article published in the journal Zootaxa.

Ms. Barroga is currently an MS student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños Crop Protection Cluster while Dr. Yap is the curator of weevils and derbids at the UPLB Museum of Natural History Entomological Collection. On the other hand, Dr. Robillard is associate professor at the Paris-based Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and a collaborator of the UPLB Museum of Natural History.

The UPLB Museum of Natural History got a real treat from the showbiz world in time for its 40th anniversary celebration last 30 September. Singer-performer Leah Navarro, a pop sensation in the 1980s graced the closing of the Museum's anniversary week and introduced the film "To Live and Be Free."

At the start of her talk, Navarro said “thank you for the invitation to introduce a film in which she merely played a small part, but of which she is extremely proud of."

More than 650 school children from the Lopez Elementary School’s grade levels 4 to 6, accompanied by their teachers, were able to get complimentary tours last 28-29 September at the Museum of Natural History. The free museum tour was a community service initiative of the Museum as part of its 40th Anniversary Celebrations.

The UPLB Museum of Natural History recently launched its new sets of exhibits and displays and re-opened refurbished areas as part of its 40th anniversary celebration from 26-30 September 2016. The new exhibits have been prepared by the museum’s artists and research and extension personnel also in time for October, considered as the “Museums and Galleries Month.”

A new species of cave-dwelling cockroach was recently described and named after Dr. Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez, director of the UPLB Museum of Natural History. Nocticola gonzalezi is the newly-described troglobiotic or a true cave-dwelling cockroach in the Philippines. The species was discovered and described by Cristian C. Lucañas and Dr. Ireneo L. Lit, Jr. of the Museum’s Entomological Section.

This particular species has been collected in a cave in Polillo Island, Quezon where bat guano deposits abound. In their article published in the journal Subterranean Biology (doi: 10.3897/subtbiol.19.9804), Lucañas and Lit reported that the “species is unique because it is very small compared to other members of the genus Nocticola.”