Editing Bee (section)

===As brood parasites===
[[File:Bumblebee January 2008-4.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Bombus vestalis]]'', a [[brood parasite]] of the bumblebee ''[[Bombus terrestris]]'']]
{{main|Brood parasite|Nest usurpation}}

[[Brood parasite]]s occur in several bee families including the [[apidae|apid]] subfamily [[Nomadinae]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Obligate Brood Parasitism|url=http://www.aculeataresearch.com/index.php/cuckoo-behavior/52-obligate-brood-parasitism|publisher=Aculeata Research Group|access-date=30 June 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707053542/http://www.aculeataresearch.com/index.php/cuckoo-behavior/52-obligate-brood-parasitism|archive-date=7 July 2015}}</ref> Females of these species lack pollen collecting structures (the [[scopa (biology)|scopa]]) and do not construct their own nests. They typically enter the nests of pollen collecting species, and lay their eggs in cells provisioned by the host bee. When the "cuckoo" bee larva hatches, it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and often the host egg also.<ref>{{cite web |title=Brood Parasitism |url=http://www.amentsoc.org/insects/glossary/terms/brood-parasitism |publisher=Amateur Entomologists' Society |access-date=30 June 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702165918/http://www.amentsoc.org/insects/glossary/terms/brood-parasitism |archive-date=2 July 2015}}</ref> In particular, the Arctic bee species, ''[[Bombus hyperboreus]]'' is an aggressive species that attacks and enslaves other bees of the same subgenus. However, unlike many other bee brood parasites, they have pollen baskets and often collect pollen.<ref>Gjershaug, Jan Ove (5 June 2009). "The social parasite bumblebee Bombus hyperboreus Schönherr, 1809 usurp nest of Bombus balteatus Dahlbom, 1832 (Hymenoptera, Apidae) in Norway" (PDF). ''Norwegian Journal of Entomology'' '''56'''(1): 28–31. Retrieved 26 September 2015.</ref>

In Southern Africa, hives of African honeybees (''A. mellifera scutellata'') are being destroyed by parasitic workers of the Cape honeybee, ''A. m. capensis''. These lay [[diploid]] eggs ("[[thelytoky]]"), escaping normal [[worker policing]], leading to the colony's destruction; the parasites can then move to other hives.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gullan |first1=P. J. |last2=Cranston |first2=P. S. |title=The Insects: An Outline of Entomology |date=2014 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |isbn=978-1-118-84615-5 |edition=5th |page=347}}</ref>

The [[cuckoo bee]]s in the ''[[List of bumblebee species|Bombus]]'' subgenus ''Psithyrus'' are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size. This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle "[[Emery's rule]]". Others parasitize bees in different families, like ''[[Townsendiella]]'', a [[nomadinae|nomadine]] [[apidae|apid]], two species of which are cleptoparasites of the [[Dasypodaidae|dasypodaid]] genus ''[[Hesperapis]]'',<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Rozen, Jerome George |author2=McGinley, Ronald J. |year=1991 |title=Biology and Larvae of the Cleptoparasitic Bee ''Townsendiella pulchra'' and Nesting Biology of its Host ''Hesperapis larreae'' (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) |journal=American Museum Novitates |issue=3005  |hdl=2246/5032 }}</ref> while the other species in the same genus attacks [[halictidae|halictid]] bees.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Moure, Jesus S.|author2=Hurd, Paul David |title=An Annotated Catalog of the Halictid Bees of the Western Hemisphere (Hymenoptera, Halictidae) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2iUlSfQt8vEC |year=1987 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |pages=28–29}}</ref>