Henry Bates was born in Leicester, England, on February 8, 1825, and developed an early interest in entomology. At the age of only 17 or 18 he published notes on Coleoptera in the Zoologist. At about the age of 20, he met Alfred Russel Wallace, who was then teaching English in a school in Leicester and had an interest in botany. Through the influence of Bates, Wallace began to collect beetles. In 1847, Wallace proposed a trip to Pará, Brazil, to collect insects and other natural history objects, having read W.H. Edwards’ “Voyage up the Amazon”. These two explorers, together with Bates’ brother, sailed from Liverpool for Pará in April 1848. They intended to support themselves by the sale in Europe of natural history objects that they expected to collect in Brazil. Many hardships followed. These included his affliction with yellow fever, the death of Bates’ brother, and the loss at sea of Wallace’s first collection of natural history objects. Nevertheless, he persevered (Wallace...
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References
Sharp D (1892) Henry Walter Bates, F.R.S. Entomologist 25:7–7–80
Woodcock G (1969) Henry Walter Bates. Naturalist of the Amazons. Fader and Fader, London, 269 pp
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(2008). Bates, Henry Walter. In: Capinera, J.L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Entomology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6359-6_244
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