1825-1892

English naturalist whose theory of mimicry (now called Batesian mimicry) explained that color patterns of different species can be similar because nonpoisonous species mimic the bright warning patterns of poisonous species. His hypothesis supported the theory of evolution by natural selection proposed by his contemporaries Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Bates also collected almost 15,000 animal species during 11 years of field work in the Amazon Basin and described more than 700 scarab species new to science.