New ant species named after Cory Aquino

The North Luzon Expressway is not the only one adopting the name of the country’s first woman president.

A report by the Museum of National History of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) said a new species of ants was discovered in the rainforests of Palawan was named after former president Corazon “Cory” Aquino.

Citing an article by the India-based journal HALTERES, the report said ant specialists David Emmanuel General and Perry Archival Buenavente of the UPLB named the new species Romblonella coryae “in honor of the late former president.”

“It is only but fitting that a genus named after a Philippine island has a species named after a modern Filipino hero,” the researchers said.

R. coryae ants were described to have a “robust, hard and compact body.”

The report said the researchers were volunteering in a biodiversity survey in Cleopatra’s Need in Palawan last January 2014 when they encountered the ants.

General said naming the ants after Cory Aquino is a form of gratitude of the people of Palawan to the former president for Republic Act No. 7611 or the Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan Act of 1992.

“Romblonella ants are very rare to find, in fact, they have only been seen in five island locations in the Philippines and have not been observed anywhere in the mainlands of Luzon and Mindanao,” General added.

According to the researchers, R. coryae is only the second species of Romblonella that can be found in the country—the last of which was discovered 24 years ago.

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