The tiny black wasps found associated with the Coconut Scale Insect (Aspidiotus rigidus Reyne) infesting coconuts in Calauan, Laguna and collected in 2014 by a team lead by Curator Mario V. Navasero have been formally described by MNH Curator Dr. Alberto T. Barrion and Drs. Billy Joel M. Almarinez, Divina M. Amalin and Jose Santos R. Carandang of De La Salle University's Biology Department.

In a recently published article of Asia Life Sciences (Vol. 25, No. 1), the authors described and illustrated a new species of Comperiella Howard 1906, only the second species of the genus known to occur in the Philippines.

The Philippines’ first conservation initiative to entice endemic species of frogs, particularly from Luzon, to breed in captivity has been established at the Museum of Natural History in response to the fast decline of amphibians in the country and the world.

The conservation scheme, dubbed as "Project Palaka" has developed an ex situ captive program that involves collecting individuals of endemic frogs from Mt. Makiling and maintaining them in captivity. The initial goal of the project is simply to breed each species, with future goals focused on the refinement of breeding techniques and captive maintenance, and a long-term target of understanding each species' captive care and reproductive requirements for conservation purposes.

The UPLB Museum of Natural History joined the Land Grant Management Office (LGMO) in celebrating the 86th Founding Anniversary of the UP Sierra Madre Land Grants last 9 February 2016. During the event, MNH Director Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez and Curator Pastor L. Malabrigo, Jr. gave lectures on the floral and faunal biodiversity of the Laguna and Quezon Land Grants.

In his talk, Prof. Malabrigo highlighted the remarkable diversity of forest trees in the land grants with at least 171 species recorded during their rapid assessment. He further emphasized the presence of threatened tree species, especially the dipterocarps.

Acarologist Dr. Hans Klompen of The Ohio State University's Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology is the Museum's newest international collaborator and will be appointed as Visiting Curator this 2016.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Klompen has done research on systematics and evolution of parasitiform mites. He is currently the organizer of the Acarology Summer Program, one of the world's leading training programs in systematic acarology. He received his MS degree from Radboud University, The Netherlands and his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan.

Five new Hoya species have been named after the Museum and its curators in three separate issues of Hoya New, an online publication (ISSN 2329-7336) dedicated to the Genus Hoya.

Hoyas, commonly known as wax plants, belong the Apocynaceae family. It is an evergreen perennial creeper or vine that rarely shrubs, with waxy texture and with milky latex-like sap. There are more than 100 recorded species of Hoya in the Philipines as of last year, 25 of which are endemic.

The new species namely H. histora, lambioae, litii, leticiae and edwinofernandoi have already been added to the International Plant Name Index by Robert Dale Kloppenburg, a research agronomist and Hoya taxonomist.

Curators, staff and students from the Museum of Natural History recently participated during the "International Symposium on Biodiversity as Economic Resource — Innovative Exploitation for Science and Society" last 18 January 2016.

Director Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez, Curators Dr. Ayolani De Lara, Dr. Alberto T. Barrion, Dr. Aimeee Lynn B. Dupo, Dr. Emmanuel Ryan De Chavez; MNH staff James DV. Alvarez and David Emmanuel M. General; and MNH special problem students Mattheus Imcon V. Abris and Clarizette O. Llegado attended the scientific gathering hosted by Ateneo de Manila University, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and BIOTA AdMU chapter.