Chrono-Biographical Sketch: Henry Walter Bates

Henry Walter Bates has a permanent place in the history of natural history by virtue of his eleven year stint as a collector in tropical Brazil, the famous travel book he wrote describing his adventure, and his pulling together of geographical data, field observation, and Darwinian theory to fashion the theory of protective mimicry. Bates was headed for a dull life as a clerk at a brewery in Leicester when by chance he ran into Alfred Russel Wallace at a library in that city, where Wallace was working temporarily as a master at a private school. Bates had already published some short notes on entomology and was an avid amateur collector; Wallace's interest was sparked and he kept in touch when he left the area. A couple of years later he suggested to Bates that they travel to the Amazon region as professional collectors. They did so, and while Wallace stayed there four years before moving on, Bates remained a full eleven years. On returning to London he began publishing important entomological works culminating in "Contributions to an Insect Fauna..." which included interesting zoogeographical analysis and developed his theory of protective resemblance, ever since known as Batesian mimicry. The next year he brought out his The Naturalist on the River Amazons, which quickly reached major classic status as an example of literary scientific travel writing. The rest of Bates's life, however, proved something of a denouement. His work as secretary to the Royal Geographical Society starting in 1864 was rather demanding (though it allowed him plenty of opportunities to assist other naturalists in a variety of significant ways), and although he continued to produce good descriptive entomological work he never ventured into the realm of theory again.