Former Phillie Jose Bautista Receives Baseball's Greatest Honor -- A Beetle Species Named After Him

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OTTAWA, Ontario (CBS/AP) — Entomologist Bob Anderson has named over 120 species of beetles in his life, but it's safe to say this is the first one he's named after a former Philile. Jose Bautista has a new namesake buzzing around.

Anderson of the Canadian Museum of Nature has dubbed a newly discovered species of beetle Sicoderus bautistai after the former Toronto Blue Jays star.

Anderson decided to name the insect — known as a weevil for its long snout — after Bautista because of the bat-flip home run that propelled Toronto to the 2015 American League Championship Series.

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"It was one of those moments in Toronto baseball sort of lore where he hit this big home run," Anderson said Thursday. "And I thought what a great way to kind of recognize his contributions to Blue Jay baseball and to Canadian baseball, really, as a whole."

The 38-year-old Bautista played for Toronto from 2009 to 2017. He split last season with the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and Phillies.

Bautista came to the Phillies in a midseason trade with the Mets in August. The aging slugger hit .244 with two homers and six RBI in 27 games in pinstripes. He is currently a free agent.

The Sicoderus bautistai is a tiny black weevil that is found in Bautista's native Dominican Republic.

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Anderson has named about 120 weevils over his career.

"One of the nice things about this is that you have some latitude to do something kind of quirky," Anderson said. "(Naming) sort of builds on a history and the names tell little stories."