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1. Dilochia deleoniae (Orchidaceae), a new species from Mindanao, Philippines

   https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.139.46935  

   Tandang, Danilo N.; Galindon, John Michael; Tadiosa, Edwin R.; Coritico, Fulgent P.; Amoroso, Victor B.; Lagunday, Noel E.; Bustamante, Rene Alfred; Penneys, Darin S.; Fritsch, Peter W. (February 2020, PhytoKeys)

   A new species, Dilochia deleoniae Tandang & Galindon (Orchidaceae), from Mindanao Island, Philippines is described and illustrated herein. This species is distinct from other known Philippine Dilochia species by its terrestrial habit and is distinguished from all known Dilochia species by its monopodial inflorescence, rarely branching in two, and a pale yellow to dull orange or brownish-yellow labellum devoid of purple spots. 

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2. A new, morphologically cryptic species of fanged frog, genus Limnonectes (Amphibia: Anura: Dicroglossidae), from Mindoro Island, central Philippines.

   Mark W. Herr, Johana Goyes (January 2021, Copeia)

   null (Ed.)

   We describe a new species of fanged frog (genus Limnonectes) from Mindoro and Semirara Islands, of the Mindoro Pleistocene Aggregate Island Complex, of the central Philippines. Although morphologically indistinguishable from its closest relative, Limnonectes acanthi, of the Palawan faunal region, the two species can be readily diagnosed on the basis of spectral (dominant frequency) and temporal (pulse number and structure) properties of their advertisement calls, and their allopatric insular geographic ranges on permanently separate geological platforms which have not been connected by dry land in the recent geological past—all of which we interpret as congruent and independent lines of evidence supporting our recognition of two independently evolving evolutionary lineages (species). Ribosomal RNA mitochondrial gene sequences were used to provide genetic identification of specimens and estimate phylogenetic relationships; genetic divergences between Palawan and Mindoro faunal regions exceed those estimated among other, uncontroversial, phenotypically distinct Philippine species with equivalent levels of allopatry and biogeographic isolation. The recognition of the new species further emphasizes the degree to which even well-studied Philippine landmasses still harbor unrecognized biodiversity, and suggests that other widespread Philippine fanged frogs should be scrutinized for non-traditional diagnostic character differences (mate-recognition signal divergence, ecological differences, larval characteristics, life-history trait variation), especially when their geographic ranges span the archipelago’s permanent, deep-water trenches, which define its well-characterized Pleistocene Aggregate Island Complexes 

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3. Vaccinium carmesinum (Ericaceae), a new species of blueberry from Mt. Tago Range, Mindanao Island, Philippines

   https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.533.3.3  

   TAMAYO, MAVERICK N.; CORITICO, FULGENT P.; AMOROSO, VICTOR B.; PENNEYS, DARIN S.; TANDANG, DANILO N.; FRITSCH, PETER W. (February 2022, Phytotaxa)

   Vaccinium carmesinum is described as a new species of Ericaceae from Mt. Tago Range, Mindanao Island, Philippines. It is similar to V. platyphyllum Merrill and V. luzoniense S.Vidal but is distinct from the former by longer and wider leaves, longer racemes, longer bracts, glabrous corollas, and glabrescent fruits, and from the latter by longer petioles, leaf glands distributed along the blade margin, glabrous rachis, and lanate filaments. Vaccinium carmesinum bears the widest leaves among Philippine Vaccinium. Its discovery increases the number of Vaccinium species recognized in the Philippines to 37. 

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4. Three new species of Philippine forest mice (Apomys, Muridae, Mammalia), members of a clade endemic to Mindoro Island

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5647.1.1  

   HEANEY, LAWRENCE R; BALETE, DANILO S; DUYA, MARIANO_ROY M; DUYA, MELIZAR V; KYRIAZIS, CHRISTOPHER C; RICKART, ERIC A; STEPPAN, SCOTT J; ROWSEY, DAKOTA M (June 2025, Zootaxa)

   Apomys, a Philippine endemic genus of forest mice, occurs throughout most oceanic portions of the archipelago and is its most speciose mammal genus, with 18 species currently recognized. Recent extensive surveys of mammals on Mindoro Island have produced specimens that document the presence of three genetically and morphologically distinct candidate species of Apomys (subgenus Megapomys) previously unknown. These three, plus one previously described relative from Mindoro, constitute a clade of well-supported, reciprocally monophyletic units based on cytochrome b sequence data, all of which are strongly supported using BPP species delimitation. Data from three nuclear genes show less divergence, but species delimitation analyses are consistent with results from cytochrome b. These four taxa are easily diagnosed on the basis of pelage and cranial morphology. Each of the four species occurs allopatrically, though two occur along a single elevational gradient. In this paper, we formally describe the three new species. We estimate that the common ancestor of the four species arrived on Mindoro from Luzon roughly 4.7 Ma, with initial diversification beginning roughly 2.7 Ma, and increasing to the current four species about 1.3 Ma. The three new species increase the number of mammals currently recognized as endemics on Mindoro from nine to twelve. This is a remarkably high number of endemic mammals from an island of its size, and reflects Mindoro’s status as a geologically old island permanently isolated from other oceanic islands in the Philippines by deep water, while also corroborating Mindoro as the smallest island within which endemic speciation by small mammals is known to have occurred.   

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5. A new species of grass fern, Schizaea erecta (Schizaeaceae), from Dinagat Island, Mindanao, Philippines

   https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.618.3.4  

   AMOROSO, VICTOR B; ACOLA, MESCEL S; GUIANG, MARIA_MELANIE M; ACMA, FLORFE M; FRITSCH, PETER W; CORITICO, FULGENT P (October 2023, Phytotaxa)

   Schizaea erecta Amoroso & Coritico (Schizaeaceae) from Dinagat Island, Mindanao, Philippines, is here described. This species is distinguished from other species of Schizaea by its consistently erect sterile and fertile fronds, narrow laminae, opposite sorophore lobes, rhizomes covered with short appressed brown scales, and oblong sporangia with apical annulus and conspicuous long, white hairs. A taxonomic key to the species of Philippine Schizaeaceae is provided.  

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