H(enry) W(alter) Bates - Works

Naturalist and traveller, born in Leicester, Leicestershire, C England, UK. He explored the valley of the Amazon (1848–59), accompanied by his friend Alfred Russel Wallace for the first four years, returning with 8000 species of hitherto unknown insects. In 1861 he published his distinctive contribution to the theory of natural selection in a paper explaining the phenomenon of mimicry in animals (later known as Batesian mimicry).

Henry Walter Bates (February 8, 1825 – February 16, 1892) was an English naturalist and explorer.

Bates is most famous for his expedition to the Amazon with Alfred Russel Wallace in 1848.

Bates was born in Leicester, and at 13 he became apprentice to a hosier.

Henry Bates is famous for his amplification of Darwin's and Wallace's theory of evolution by natural selection. His own theory of mimicry, which now bears his name (Batesian Mimicry), provided evidence for evolution by natural selection.

From 1864 onwards, he worked as assistant secretary of the Royal Geographical Society then selling his Lepidoptera to Godman and Salvin and beginning to work mostly on cerambycids, carabids, and cicindelids.

In 1861 he married Sarah Ann Mason.

Works

Biologia Centrali-Americana Insecta. Coleoptera. Volume I , Part 1 (1881-1884) Insecta. Pectinicornia and Lamellicornia. Volume II , Part 2 (1886-1890) Insecta. Volume VI , Part 1 (1880-1892) (coauthored by David Sharp).