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Who was Henry W. Bates and how did he study butterfly mimicry?

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Müllerian mimicry: butterflies — mimicry *Heliconius* butterflies demonstrating Müllerian mimicry, a form of mimicry where one or more species exhibit closely similar warning systems. In this case, wing patterning and coloration among the species appear very similar.

Henry W. Bates (1825–1892) was a British naturalist and explorer who provided critical evidence for natural selection through his study of mimicry.1

In 1848, Bates traveled to the Amazon basin, where he spent 11 years collecting nearly 15,000 species of insects. His research into butterfly mimicry was published in 1862, following his observations of Brazilian forest butterflies. He noted that certain edible species of the family Pieridae bore a striking resemblance to unpalatable, conspicuously colored species of the family Heliconiidae.12

Bates concluded that the inedible butterflies used their bright colors as a warning to predators. The edible species gained a survival advantage by mimicking these warning patterns, effectively deceiving predators into avoiding them. This phenomenon, now known as Batesian mimicry, demonstrated how natural selection could favor the evolution of protective resemblances in defenseless organisms.231