Blister beetle or bee?

I spotted this beetle this morning and as I'd never seen one before, thought it was worthy of a few photographs. It wasn't until I got home and searched the internet that I discovered that it's called a blister beetle or commonly known as an oil beetle, so called because it releases oily droplets of hemolymph from it's joints when disturbed. This particular one is a female black oil beetle and apparently it's under threat, due to lack of habitat.
Apparently it has an amazing life cycle which starts when the female lays hundreds of eggs under the earth. The young (triungulin) hatch and climb up the stems of the nearby foliage waiting for an unsuspecting solitary bee to land on the plant. They then climb aboard, hooking into the bee so as not to fall off. The bee goes back to the nest, the triungulin climb off and eat the bee eggs and pollen.
Now I'm no expert but if our bees are under threat and therefore our own existence, why are we protecting anything that threatens our bee population?

We did a brisk walk up White Horse Hill this morning to blow off the cobwebs. The sun was shining and the rape fields looked like a bright yellow carpet below us. One of our favourite spots is on the Gallops, where they exercise the race horses and so we stopped for a flask of coffee and a hot cross bun. We've been going there for years and today was the first time we've actually seen any race horses. I did get some shots as they galloped by but the beetle won the blip spot.