A National Treasure: A Brief History and Enumeration of Her Significant Contributions to Philippine Terrestrial Arthropod Biodiversity

摘要

Scientists are made, not born, I believe. Scientists work; scientists retire; only their science lives forever - a paraphrase of another saying about trees and forests. However, unlike forests that are destroyed by human activities, one's science, ormore appropriately, a scientist's contributions to his/her chosen field are permanent records. If the scientist's science happens to be systematics or taxonomy, such records are not only permanent. They are invaluable, indispensable, virtually invincible.When Dr. LeonilaA. Corpuz-Raros was born on 14 January 1941, nobody in her birth place at Pintor, Gamu, Isabela Province, which is largely a farming community, would have thought that she would be a scientist, in fact a great one, as she is today. In her grade school days, Dr. Raros would go for kilometers on foot just to study and learn the day's lessons. Surely, talent, superior intellect, character and the great potential have always been there, from the little girl who would whisk passing through an old cemetery in a nearby barrio to the diligent U.P. student who was rearing, sorting and counting test insects for a toxicological study in the old Department of Entomology. Whether it was by sheer luck or fate or destiny, the loss to toxicology became the greatest gain Philippine systematics has ever had.