CAGAYAN - As part of its public service activities this year, the UPLB Museum of Natural History has taken up the request of Sta. Teresita town Mayor Lolita Garcia here in Cagayan for help in gathering baseline data on the town's cave and karst areas.

A composite assessment team spearheaded by the Museum travelled to Sta. Teresita, almost 20 hours by land, on 24-28 February to conduct ocular and collection surveys in three identified caves and the town's lake. The visit, coordinated through municipal environmental officer Nida Dela Cruz, was made part of the town's 5th National Ecotoursim Festival/2nd Namunit Festival.

The UPLB Museum of Natural History continues its tradition of producing and nurturing outstanding researchers, extension and administrative personnel. This 2017, a junior and Curator from the Museum have been chosen as the best in their respective categories by selection committees composed of distinguished and accomplished faculty and staff.

James DV. Alvarez, University Extension Associate I of the MNH's Zoological and Wildlife Collection, will be given the 2017 Outstanding Researcher Award in the Natural Sciences (Junior REPS Category) for his active research collaborations with local and foreign researchers and scientists in the documentation and protection of biodiversity; and prolific publications in high-impact journals early in his career.

Acarologists from the UPLB Museum of Natural History recently reported their discovery of a cave mite new to science.

Professor Emeritus Leonila A. Corpuz-Raros, curator of the MNH Entomological Museum and research associate Jeremy Carlo B. Naredo found two unique female specimens from bat guano which was collected by other museum staff in an expedition in Biak-na-Bato National Park in 2003. The park consists of a cave network and a system of rivers and trails of both historical and ecological importance.

They named the new cheyletid mite Lanceacheyla filipina, n. sp. Corpuz-Raros & Naredo as a tribute to the Filipina woman.

Dr. Sheryl A. Yap, a curator of the UPLB Museum of Natural History Entomologigcal Collection recently co- described a new species of a minute derbid planthopper collected from Mt. Pao, Adams, Ilocos Norte. Derbids are insects in the order Hemiptera, the true bugs. It is one of the largest and most diverse families of planthoppers (Fulgoroidea).

In an article appearing in 7th volume of India-based journal Halteres, Yap and her co-author Thierry Bourgoin of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Systematique, Evolution, Biodiversite in Paris reported that they have named the discovery, the second species of the genus Ceropupa as Ceropupa adams n. sp. in honor of the type locality.

A young researcher at the UPLB Museum of Natural History has recently described a new species of cockroach while curating the museum's Blattodea collection.

Cristian Lucanas, University Research Associate I, reported in the latest issue of The Philippine Entomologist (Vol. 30, No. 1) that a species of Anaplecta, a genus of the Order Blattodea and previously not known from the country, was found among the MNH's numerous specimens after closer examination.

The discovery now extends the Pan-tropical distribution of the genus to Southeast Asia. The new cockroach named Anaplecta anncajanoae Lucañas, n. sp. is only one of the three possible new species that has been studied and mentioned in the paper.

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.”