Romulo G. Davide
Professor, Department of Plant Pathology
College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños
http://doi.org/10.57043/transnastphl.2001.5117
Abstract
A brief history of the development of systematic entomology in the Philippines is presented. Early collections, descriptions, and nomenclature of Philippine insects were done by foreigners, mostly from Great Britain, Germany, and the United States of America. Japanese workers on Philippine materials came much later, starting in the 1960s.
It was only after World War II (1950s) that Filipino taxonomists/systematists began to study groups of economically important insects and mites. Twelve to fifteen systematists in the entire country have their respective specializations, but these experts could not study all of the 20,000 or more species of insects and mites existing in the country.
The orders of insects are tabulated, together with the number of species and subspecies under each order. Priorities in future studies should be in the orders Coleoptera (beetles and weevils) and Lepidoptera (moths). Other recommendations are enumerated.
The most critical problem is how to attract, train, and nurture promising scientists who will be the future insect systematists