Editing Bee (section)

===As mimics and models===
[[File:Bombylius major on flower.jpg|thumb|left|The bee-fly ''[[Bombylius major]]'', a [[Batesian mimic]] of bees, taking nectar and pollinating a flower]]
{{main|Mimicry|Batesian mimicry|Müllerian mimicry}}
[[File:Ophrys apifera flower1.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ophrys apifera|Bee orchid]] lures male bees to attempt to mate with the flower's lip, which resembles a bee perched on a pink flower.]]

Many bees are [[aposematic]]ally colored, typically orange and black, warning of their ability to defend themselves with a powerful sting. As such they are models for [[Batesian mimicry]] by non-stinging insects such as [[bee-flies]], [[Asilidae|robber flies]] and [[hoverflies]],<ref name="ThorpHorning1983">{{cite book |last1=Thorp |first1=Robbin W. |last2=Horning |first2=Donald S. |last3=Dunning |first3=Lorry L. |title=Bumble Bees and Cuckoo Bumble Bees of California (Hymenoptera, Apidae) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1eJ3fWwshIC&pg=PA9 |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-09645-5 |page=9 |quote=Of the forms of mimicry, two relate to [[Bombini]]. Batesian mimicry .. is exemplified by members of several families of flies: [[Syrphidae]], [[Asilidae]], [[Horse-fly|Tabanidae]], [[Oestridae]], and [[Bombyliidae]] (Gabritschevsky, 1926). |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105171749/https://books.google.com/books?id=v1eJ3fWwshIC&pg=PA9 |archive-date=5 January 2017}}</ref> all of which gain a measure of protection by superficially looking and behaving like bees.<ref name="ThorpHorning1983"/>

Bees are themselves [[Müllerian mimicry|Müllerian mimics]] of other aposematic insects with the same color scheme, including [[wasp]]s, [[Lycidae|lycid]] and other beetles, and many butterflies and moths ([[Lepidoptera]]) which are themselves distasteful, often through acquiring bitter and poisonous chemicals from their plant food. All the Müllerian mimics, including bees, benefit from the reduced risk of predation that results from their easily recognized warning coloration.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cott |first1=Hugh |author-link=Hugh B. Cott |title=Adaptive Coloration in Animals |title-link=Adaptive Coloration in Animals |date=1940 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=196, 403 and passim}}</ref>

Bees are also mimicked by plants such as the [[Ophrys apifera|bee orchid]] which imitates both the appearance and the scent of a female bee; male bees attempt to mate ([[pseudocopulation]]) with the furry lip of the flower, thus pollinating it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bee Orchids and Insect Mimicry |url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/plants-fungi/bee-orchids/ |publisher=Natural History Museum |access-date=1 July 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708203045/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/plants-fungi/bee-orchids/ |archive-date=8 July 2015}}</ref>