Question

The bee orchid has flower petals that are furry and colored to resemble female bees. They attract male bees that wish to mate with the female bee imposters, resulting in pollination of the orchid flower. How would the bee orchid flowers' mimicry affect bee survival? Male bees that mate with the bee orchid flowers will be more reproductively successful because they will have practice mating. Male bees that can identify the bee orchid flowers as frauds will mate with real bees and pass on their genes to offspring. Female bees that can pollinate the bee orchid flowers will be able to eliminate competition for mates and produce more offspring. Female bees that resemble the bee orchids will attract more male bees than the flowers and will be able to produce offspring.

Answer 1

When two populations containing two different species interact with each other for a long time, the changes that occur in the gene pool of one species lead to the changes in the gene pool of other species. This process is known as co-evolution. The changes in the gene pools either make the species more competitive or avoid or reduce the competition between the species. Mimicry of bee Orchid flowers is co-evolution mechanism of pollination. The mimicry mechanism may affect bees by male bees discovering new mechanism to detect original female bees and mate with them to produce offspring. Option 2 is correct.