Henry Walter Bates (1825—1892)

English naturalist and explorer. He and Alfred Russel Wallace left England in 1848 to explore and collect insects in the Amazon basin in what was to become incredibly valuable explorations and insights into natural history and evolution for the both of them. For the next eleven years Bates explored and collected around the Amazon and its tributaries, penetrating 1,400 miles upstream. By the time he left South America he had discovered over 8,000 species unknown to science. Bates was quick to embrace Darwin’s and Wallace’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Bates’ own theory of mimicry, which now bears his name (Batesian mimicry), provided evidence for evolution by natural selection. For several years after his Amazon travels, Bates worked mostly on butterflies. When he obtained his position with the Royal Geographical Society, he sold his Lepidoptera to Godman and Salvin. Bates assumed the post of Assistant Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society in 1864 and continued in this position for 28 years until his death. He died of bronchitis in 1892. His great work was ‘The Naturalist on the River Amazon’ (1863).

— Read online The Naturalist on the River Amazons [HTML]