New species found in Cebu forests

WITHIN shrinking remnants of

Cebu's once vast rain forests,

University of San Carlos (USC)

researchers have stumbled on three

species of damselflies unknown to the world of science so far.

Credit for the discovery goes to the painstaking field research of

60-year-old entomologist Teobaldo Borromeo of Cebu and

scientists from the USC Botany Research Center.

Borromeo is little-known

outside of Cebu's small circle

of scientists, but he is known

abroad as a lepidopterist. He

has identified 76 species of

butterflies in Cebu, many in

remote forest cul-de-sacs.

This father of seven serves as

a lepidoptera research aide for

Germany's Senckenberg

Museum.

Dragonflies and damselflies (Iriscionemesis rolandmulleri) are

loosely known as tutubi in Tagalog and alindahaw in Cebuano.

Borromeo and his USC co-workers also discovered a wine-red

algae (Thorea sp.) that, up to now, never occurred in the

Philippines.

World experts in Finland and Japan have confirmed the

findings, Dr. Franz Seidenschwarz of the USC said during a

Department of Environment and Natural Resources briefing on

four Cebu protected areas.

Tentatively tagged as Cebu-Risiocnemis, the damselfly has a

bluish-black thorax and white stripes on the abdomen. USC

researchers found it in a small streamlet in the Tabunan forests

of central Cebu.

''It is a new species,'' never recorded before, writes Dr. Matti

Hamalainen, the world authority on Philippine damselflies. ''The

color pattern of the thorax is different. The structure differences

in male appendages are quite striking.''

Only in Cebu

These are marked differences from its West Visayan relatives,

the University of Helsinki points out. The species is ''likely

endemic to Cebu (not to be found anywhere else in the world).''

''This is the most endangered damselfly species presently

known,'' Dr. Hamalainen warns. ''The habitat area is minute and

must be considered very vulnerable.''

The latest discovery increases the number of species found

exclusively in Tabunan forests to three. The others are the Cebu

cinnamon tree and the bird known as the Cebu flowerpecker

(Dicaeum quadricolor).

The second new species, a blue-green damselfly (Amphicnemis

spec. nov), is also on the brink of extinction. Dr. Hamalainen

cautions that ''the population density of the species is very

low.'' It flutters around bamban trees and so-called flood-plain

forest vegetation.

The third new species (Cebu-drepanostica) is ''at least another

addition to Cebu fauna, he adds. ''This group is one of the most

difficult among Philippine damselflies. Only four have so far

been named--three from Luzon and one from Mindanao.

A female damselfly, captured near the picturesque Kawasan

Falls is so unique that it has stumped scientists so far, says

Seidenschwarz, a University of Munich professor based in San

Carlos. ''Still unidentified, it may represent a novelty to Cebu

fauna.''

First in RP

Dr. Shigeru Komano of Kobe University confirmed that a 20-25

centimeter wine-red algae (Thorea sp.) growing near the same

falls provides first evidence of its presence in the Philippines.

''The genus Thorea has been reported from Japan, China, Guam

and Malaysia in eastern Asia,'' Dr. Komano observed. ''But this

is the first record from the Philippines.''

''Rare butterflies, like the Acerbas duris mabille 1883, are found

in Leyte, Luzon, Mindoro and Negros,'' C.G. Traedway of the

Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt wrote.

While the Bisasis gomata iroquni has been seen in

Marinduque, Mindoro, Polillo, Panay, Samar and Masbate,

''these are the first recordings for Cebu,'' he said.

''All rare and endangered, the new species give a hint of how

rich Philippine and animal life used to be,'' Dr. Seidenschwarz

says.

''Without declaring remaining forest remnants as strict

protection zones,'' he adds, ''these newly discovered species,

and their unique genetic material, will also disappear for good.''