Mikey Bustos Ups the Ant-e: Credited With Discovery of Ant Species in the PH

Apparently, Filipino-Canadian content creator Mikey Bustos can do more than just make funny videos or sing covers. He has an adventurous side to him, too. The vlogger has been officially credited as someone who has discovered a new species of ant. Yes, you read that right, ant!

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Here's how Mikey Bustos found this new ant species:

Recently, the social media personality wrote about the discovery on Facebook. There, he detailed to his followers how he found a weird-looking ant species in his own backyard back in 2021.

"Two years ago, I found this really cool red and black ant with peach fuzz and spines on its back, that I hadn't ever seen before," he wrote in a post. He would then send specimens to a friend at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

“After sending specimens to my myrmecologist friend Dr. Dave General, ant taxonomist from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, we were both surprised to discover that the species was Meranoplus bicolor, an ant that had not yet been known to exist in the Philippines, where I live,” he added.

The Meranoplus bicolor is a species of ant of the subfamily Myrmicinae and can usually be found in countries like Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Tibet, southern China, Taiwan, and apparently, the Philippines, among other places. They tend to be found at the base of plants.

The species had not yet been known to exist in the Philippines, making it the 555th ant species documented here. "I went on to name the Ant Species #555... It's amazing what one might find lurking in our own backyards, if only more people took the time to look," he noted.

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This story originally appeared on Esquire Philippines. Minor edits have been made by the SPOT.ph editors.