Today, May 18, is International Museum Day, celebrated worldwide. As our own museum is closed due to the pandemic, we wish to share to you a message from the Chair of the International Committee for University Museums and Collections of the International Council of Museums. -xoxo-

Dear friends and colleagues,

When this year started I was far from imagining that IMD 2020 would be so 'unusual'. We were planning to commemorate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, the Museum Definition was everything everyone was talking about, by now we should be preparing our Annual Conference in Sydney. It seems all part of a different time and space, a different world. Still, the commemorations of IMD 2020 will go ahead across the world as planned, of course -- mostly on digital platforms -- with a 'physical' 3-day follow up between 14-16 November to coincide with the 74th anniversary of ICOM. Read more information here.

We sat down with Dr. Aimee Lynn B. Dupo, an entomologist and first asked how spiders jump for joy. "Well, for one, spiders do not just go hopping around just for the fun of it," she smiled.

"Jumping spiders of the spider family Salticidae use their jumping ability to pounce on their prey, usually smaller insects," Dupo added. Unlike grasshoppers, salticidae do not possess special leg muscles for leaping.

"Imagine them curling up a bit, powering up and coursing their blood into their legs, increasing the pressure and then releasing it," she explained. "If I had that power and I was happy, me jumping for joy would be an interesting thing to watch!"

Two new species of sphecid or thread-waisted wasps have been described by UPLB entomologists as homage to Filipino scientists who blazed the taxonomic trail for Philippine Hymenoptera. Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, which includes sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants.

Prof. Kristine O. Abenis and Dr. Ireneo L. Lit, Jr, faculty at the Institute of Biological Sciences, in an interview, were elated to share that their taxonomic review of the wasp collections of the UPLB Museum of Natural History revealed previously unidentified species belonging to the genus Chalybion. 

The all-important "Catalogue of oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) from the Malay Archipelago" has been published by taxonomy and systematics journal Zootaxa as a monograph, authored by Professor Emeritus Leonila A. Corpuz-Raros, curator of the UPLB Museum of Natural History, and fellow acarologist Dr. Sergey Ermilov of Tyumen State University, Tyumen, Russia.

Effective 17 March until 12 April 2020, the UPLB Museum of Natural History shall be closed in line with UPLB Office of the Chancellor Memo No. 48. Services such as tours, access to collections, biological specimen identification and others which require physical entry to the Museum is now suspended until further notice. Protocol for scientific name verification services for UPLB students through online means shall be announced as soon as possible.

The UPLB Museum of Natural History, UPLB Zoological Society and the Philippine Eagle Foundation bring you the highly acclaimed film, Bird of Prey. Catch it on the following dates and venues:

FREE SCREENINGS
SyenSaya @ Baker Hall, University of the Philippines Los Baños 
August 28, 2019 | 2:00 PM
August 29, 2019 | 9:30 AM