<p>Honeybees have many adaptations for defense: Adults have orange and black striping that acts as warning coloration. Predators can learn to associate that pattern with a painful sting, and avoid them. Honeybees prefer to build their hives in protected cavities (small caves or tree hollows). They seal small openings with a mix of wax and resins called propolis, leaving only one small opening. Worker bees guard the entrance of the hive. They are able to recognize members of their colony by scent, and will attack any non-members that try to enter the hive.  Workers and queens have a venomous sting at the end of the abdomen. Unlike queens, and unusual among stinging insects, the stings of <span class="taxon"><em>Apis</em></span> workers are heavily barbed and the sting and venom glands tear out of the abdomen, remaining embedded in the target. This causes the death of the worker, but may also cause a more painful sting, and discourage the predator from attacking other bees or the hive. A stinging worker releases an alarm pheromone which causes other workers to become agitated and more likely to sting, and signals the location of the first sting.</p>  <p>Honeybees are subject to many types of predators, some attacking the bees themselves, others consuming the wax and stored food in the hive. Some predators are specialists on bees, including honeybees.</p>  <p>Important invertebrate enemies of adult bees include <span class="taxon">Thomisidae</span> and <span class="taxon">Araneidae</span>, wasps in the genus <span class="taxon"><em>Philanthus</em></span> (called “beewolves”), and many species of social wasps in the family <span class="taxon">Vespidae</span>. Vespid wasp colonies are known to attack honeybee colonies en masse, and can wipe out a hive in one attack. Many vertebrate insectivores also eat adult honeybees. Toads (<span class="taxon"><em>Bufo</em></span>) that can reach the entrance of hive will sit and eat many workers, as will opossums (<span class="taxon"><em>Didelphis</em></span>). Birds are an important threat – the <span class="taxon">Meropidae</span> (bee-eaters) in particular in Africa and southern Europe, but also flycatchers around the world (<span class="taxon">Tyrranidae</span> and <span class="taxon">Muscicapidae</span>). <span class="taxon"><em>Apis mellifera</em></span> in Africa are also subject to attack by <span class="taxon">Indicatoridae</span>. These birds eat hive comb, consuming bees, wax, and stored honey. At least one species, the greater honeyguide (<span class="taxon"><em>Indicator indicator</em></span>) will guide mammal hive predators to hives, and then feed on the hive after the mammal has opened it up.</p>  <p>The main vertebrate predators of hives are mammals. <span class="taxon">Ursidae</span> frequently attack the nests of social bees and wasps, as do many <span class="taxon">Mustelidae</span> such as the <span class="taxon"><em>Eira barbara</em></span> in the Neotropics and especially the <span class="taxon"><em>Mellivora capensis</em></span> of Africa and southern and western Asia. In the Western Hemisphere <span class="taxon">Mephitidae</span>, <span class="taxon">Cingulata</span> and <span class="taxon">Vermilingua</span> also raid hives, as do pangolins (<span class="taxon"><em>Manis</em></span>) in Africa. Large primates, including <span class="taxon"><em>Papio</em></span>, <span>chimpanzees (<<g.Pan>>)</span> and <span class="taxon"><em>Gorilla</em></span> are reported to attack hives too. Smaller mammals such as mice (<span class="taxon"><em>Mus</em></span>) and rats (<span class="taxon"><em>Rattus</em></span>) will burrow into hives as well.</p>  <p>Some insects are predators in hives as well, including wax moth larvae (<span class="taxon">Galleria mellonella</span>, <span class="taxon">Achroia grisella</span>), and hive beetles (<span class="taxon">Hylostoma</span>, <span class="taxon">Aethina</span>), and some species of <span class="taxon">Formicidae</span>. In their native regions these tend not to be important enemies, but where honeybees have not co-evolved with these insects and have no defense, they can do great harm to hives.</p>  <p>See Ecosystem Roles section for information on honeybee parasites and pathogens.<span> (Adjare, 1990; Roubik, 1989; Sammataro and Avitabile, 1998)</span></p>  <p><strong>Anti-predator Adaptations: </strong>Aposematic</p>