Batesian mimicry
![Plate from Bates 1861, illustrating Batesian mimicry between Dismorphia species (top row and third row) and various Ithomiini (Nymphalidae) (second row and bottom row). A non-Batesian species, Pseudopieris nehemia, is in the centre.](/Images/godic/202412/23/Batesplate_ArM0943.jpg")
![Henry Walter Bates described the form of mimicry that bears his name in 1861.](/Images/godic/202412/23/Henry_Walter_Bates_Maull_&_Fox_BNF_Gallica0943.jpg")
![The Yellow-banded Poison Dart frog Dendrobates leucomelas has conspicuous aposematic coloration.](/Images/godic/202412/23/Yellow-banded.poison.dart.frog.arp0943.jpg")
![A well-known mimic, the viceroy (top) resembles the noxious monarch (bottom). Once thought to be a Batesian mimic, the viceroy is more unpalatable than the monarch, making this a case of Müllerian mimicry.[9]](/Images/godic/202412/23/BatesMimButter0943.JPG")
Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, after his work on butterflies in the rainforests of Brazil.