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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index B > H. W. Bates Quotes

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H. W. Bates
(8 Feb 1825 - 16 Feb 1892)

English naturalist and explorer who identified the “Batesian mimicry” in which palatable species by natural selection evolved features or a form resembling a noxious, conspicuous species that deters predators.


Science Quotes by H. W. Bates (2 quotes)

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… on these expanded membranes [butterfly wings] Nature writes, as on a tablet, the story of the modifications of species, so truly do all changes of the organisation register themselves thereon. Moreover, the same colour-patterns of the wings generally show, with great regularity, the degrees of blood-relationship of the species. As the laws of nature must be the same for all beings, the conclusions furnished by this group of insects must be applicable to the whole world.
— H. W. Bates
From The Naturalist on the River Amazons: A record of Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and Aspects of Nature under the Equator, During Eleven Years of Travel (1864), 413.
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...the study of butterflies—creatures selected as the types of airiness and frivolity—instead of being despised, will some day be valued as one of the most important branches of Biological science.
— H. W. Bates
From The Naturalist on the River Amazons: A record of Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and Aspects of Nature under the Equator, During Eleven Years of Travel (1864), 413.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Branch (155)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Creature (242)  |  Despising (3)  |  Frivolity (2)  |  Importance (299)  |  Most (1728)  |  Select (45)  |  Selection (130)  |  Study (701)  |  Type (171)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)



Quotes by others about H. W. Bates (1)

Much of the geographical work of the past hundred years... has either explicitly or implicitly taken its inspiration from biology, and in particular Darwin. Many of the original Darwinians, such as Hooker, Wallace, Huxley, Bates, and Darwin himself, were actively concerned with geographical exploration, and it was largely facts of geographical distribution in a spatial setting which provided Darwin with the germ of his theory.
'Darwin's Impact on Geography', Annals of the Association of American Geographers (1966), 56, 683.
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See also:
  • 8 Feb - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Bates's birth.
  • H. W. Bates - context of quote “On these expanded membranes Nature writes, as on a tablet” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • H. W. Bates - context of quote “On these expanded membranes Nature writes, as on a tablet” - Large image (800 x 600 px)

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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