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A first review of the history, status, and prospects for Philippine herpetology conducted more than two decades ago (2002) summarized the diverse topics studied and highlighted the development and achievements in research up to the year 2000. This study revisits and re-assesses what Philippine herpetology has accomplished, both as a discipline and a community, during the last two decades (2002–2022). A total of 423 herpetological publications was collated, revealing a substantial increase in annual publications, rising from approximately four per year during 2002–2008 to around 28 per year in 2009–2022. Half of the published studies focused on squamate reptiles (lizards 30.5%, snakes 21%) and 28.4% on amphibians, 5.9% on turtles, and 2.6% on crocodiles. The remaining 11.6% of studies focused simultaneously on multiple taxa (i.e., faunal inventories). Diversity and distribution (35.2%) and ecological (26.5%) studies remained popular, while studies on taxonomy (14.9%), phylogenetics and biogeography (11.8%), and conservation (11.6%) all increased. However, geographical gaps persist urging immediate surveys in many understudied regions of the country. Finally, we found a balanced representation between Filipino and foreign first authors (1.0:1.1), yet a substantial gender gap exists between male and female first authors (7.1:1.0). Nonetheless, the steep increase in publications and the diversity of people engaged in Philippine herpetology is a remarkable positive finding compared to the 20 years preceding the last review (1980–2000). Our hope is that the next decades will bring increasingly equitable, internationally collaborative, and broadly inclusive engagement in the study of amphibians and reptiles in the Philippines. 

Despite multiple recent field studies, herpetological species diversity of the Romblon Island Group in the central Philippines—particularly Sibuyan Island—has remained underestimated. Recently, we investigated the diversity of the herpetofauna of Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park, based on an elevational transect (10–1557 m a.s.l.). Our surveys resulted in a total of 47 species of amphibians and reptiles, including 14 new island records and one atypical occurrence of a snake species recorded for the first time from a high elevation (939 m a.s.l). These new records constitute a notable increase (21%) in Sibuyan’s herpetological species diversity as compared to surveys from a decade ago. We also provide updates of the taxonomy and identification of species endemic to this island (e.g., members of the genera Platymantis Günther, 1858, Brachymeles Duméril & Gibron, 1839, and Pseudogekko Taylor, 1922), and discuss the importance of continued surveys and field-derived data to inform conservation status assessments of Sibuyan’s unique assemblage of amphibians and reptiles. 

Abstract Cryptic ecologies, the Wallacean Shortfall of undocumented species’ geographical ranges and the Linnaean Shortfall of undescribed diversity, are all major barriers to conservation assessment. When these factors overlap with drivers of extinction risk, such as insular distributions, the number of threatened species in a region or clade may be underestimated, a situation we term ‘cryptic extinction risk’. The genusLepidodactylusis a diverse radiation of insular and arboreal geckos that occurs across the western Pacific. Previous work onLepidodactylusshowed evidence of evolutionary displacement around continental fringes, suggesting an inherent vulnerability to extinction from factors such as competition and predation. We sought to (1) comprehensively review status and threats, (2) estimate the number of undescribed species, and (3) estimate extinction risk in data deficient and candidate species, inLepidodactylus. From our updated IUCN Red List assessment, 60% of the 58 recognized species are threatened (n = 15) or Data Deficient (n = 21), which is higher than reported for most other lizard groups. Species from the smaller and isolated Pacific islands are of greatest conservation concern, with most either threatened or Data Deficient, and all particularly vulnerable to invasive species. We estimated 32 undescribed candidate species and linear modelling predicted that an additional 18 species, among these and the data deficient species, are threatened with extinction. Focusing efforts to resolve the taxonomy and conservation status of key taxa, especially on small islands in the Pacific, is a high priority for conserving this remarkably diverse, yet poorly understood, lizard fauna. Our data highlight how cryptic ecologies and cryptic diversity combine and lead to significant underestimation of extinction risk.