Bee Orchid

This is why I love Orchids and especially the mimics, they are not trying to hide from something, they are (like most flowers) trying to attract something. The Bee Orchid has gone to great lengths to mimic the female of a species of Bumble Bee sitting on a lovely purple flower, right down to giving off fake pheromones. They believe this is to widen the gene pool as insects will travel farther to find a mate then they would simply to eat, and to ensure that they get more widely distributed. Most of these mimics don't even produce any nectar.

This is a great strategy, until you learn that because we are on an island, the bee this flower mimics is actuallly extinct in Britain. This particular flower can self pollinate luckily, however it does mean that it tends to be in small areas and not widely spread. There are other mimics that do still depend soley on the insect they mimic to pollinate, like Fly Orchids and Early/Late Spider, the later of which is actally a bee mimic as well.

A couple of interesting links
PBS Info
Natural History Museum

They are but don't forget its all about the fittest surviving, one that smells like something else dies, one that has the better marks that look more like the female survive better, etc....over years this makes them better and better. Basically if you think about it, its all about the 'right' mutation...lol