Super fan scientist names new species of weevil after baseball player
A scientific super fan honored one of his favorite baseball players by naming a newly discovered, tiny, shiny weevil after him.
Entomologist Robert "Bob" Anderson from the Canadian Museum of Nature said he was inspired to name the new species of beetle after former Toronto Blue Jays player Jose Bautista after watching his epic home run in Game 5 of the American League playoffs.
"[Bautista] hit this big home run, and we were all excited because my daughter and I are big Blue Jays fans," Anderson told ABC News. "And my daughter said, 'Hey dad, if you're looking for some names to name your species after, what about naming one after Jose Bautista? He's from the Dominican Republic and one of your new species is from the Dominican Republic. So why not name it after him?"
After working out the paperwork, Anderson said the weevil is now officially called Sicoderus bautistai in the scientific record.
It isn't the first time Anderson has discovered and named a new species. He said he has discovered hundreds of new weevil species over the course of his 20-year career.
He named another weevil after Canadian entomologist Carl Edmund Atwood, the father of "Handmaid's Tale" author Margaret Atwood.
But this weevil, which feeds on plants and lives in the forests of the Dominican Republic, is the first insect that Anderson named after an athlete.
“It's the first Major League Baseball player I know that's got a species named after him," Anderson said. "So I thought that was kind of cool."
Anderson said that he did not ask Bautista for permission to name the weevil after him. Anderson said he mentioned Bautista in a tweet about the insect but never heard back.
"I think most people take it sort of, you know, as something kind of neat and quirky. And it makes you kind of special in some way," Anderson said. "Hey, you got an insect named after you."
Bautista did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment, and the Toronto Blue Jays said the club was not involved in the decision.
