Filipino acarologists from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños Museum of Natural History (MNH) have discovered a new cave mite.
In an article published in the museum’s website, MNH Entomological Museum curator Prof. Emeritus Leonila Corpuz-Raros, and research associate Jeremy Carlo Naredo were reported to have found two unique female specimens from bat guano which was collected by other museum staff during an expedition in Biak-na-Bato National Park in 2003.
Raros and Naredo named the new cheyletid mite “Lanceacheyla filipina, n. sp. Corpuz-Raros & Naredo,” a tribute to the Filipina women, reported ABS-CBN News.
The said species is described as the sixth species of known cave cheyletids, the report said.
In an article published by the UPLB-MNH, the authors reportedly said the naming of the species after the Filipina is in honor of famous and unnamed Filipina expatriates who joined the Philippine revolutionary movement.
