Straight forward to the queen: pursuing honeybee drones (Apis mellifera L.) adjust their body axis to the direction of the queen

Abstract

At a natural drone congregation area freeflying drones were attracted by a fast-moving queen dummy and the pursuits of drones were stereoscopically recorded (Fig. 1). The reconstruction of 192 flight paths from successfully approaching drones in chronological three dimensional sequences (Fig. 4) lead to the following results: 1. The alignment of the drone's longitudinal body axis coincides fairly well with the line connecting drone and queen (drone-queen-axis), its mean angular deviation from this line being only 14 ~ . Angles between -5 ~ and 5 ~ occur most frequently (Fig. 5B). Thus, drones head straight to the queen. 2. Lateral deviations from the drone-queen-axis most frequently lie between -30 ~ and 30 ~ (Fig. 5A) which corresponds to the drone's binocular visual field. 3. The drone's heading was continuously adjusted to the actual target, mean turning speed being 1890~ 4. The results lead to the conclusion that honeybee drones choose the shortest way to a fast and not predictably moving mate. A comparison with earlier observations suggests that a drone's mating success depends not only on his skills to win a race but also on his persistence within a group.

Body size and reproductive success of drones (Apis mellifera L)

“…(Koeniger, 1988). Recent experimental studies of flying drones attracted by a fast moving queen dummy revealed a surprising behavioral adaptability of the drone's strategy to different mating situations (Gries and Koeniger, 1996). Competition behavior of males which results in an active displacement of competitors from superior mating territories is quite common in species with male mating assemblies (lekking) and as a result of this the larger males usually occupy territories or locations where the probability of access to the females is optimal (Blum and Blum, 1979;Thornhill and Alcock, 1983;Alcock and Houston, 1987 (Loper et al, 1987;Vallet and Coles, 1993).…”

“…There, the flying young queen is regularly followed by large swarms of drones which compete for mating (Gries and Koeniger, 1996). It is not known yet whether small drones follow a mating strategy which is different from the strategy of large drones.…”

Drone competition at drone congregation areas in four Apis species

“…These formations were termed "drone comets" or "mating comets". They build up and may disintegrate within seconds (Gary, 1962(Gary, , 1963van Praagh et al, 1980;Gries and Koeniger, 1996). No aggression within a comet was observed (Gary, 1963;Koeniger et al, 1979).…”

Standard methods for behavioural studies ofApis mellifera

“…Therefore, it is not only the sex pheromones that are important for mating behaviour, but the shape, colour and pattern of the queen dummy also play an important role (Gary and Marston, 1971;Koeniger, 1990;Vallet and Coles, 1993;Gries and Koeniger, 1996).…”

“…The queen or dummy has to be fixed on a third bar in an identical angle to both recorders (Gries and Koeniger, 1996). Examples of possible research goals and their respective methods are given in Table 6.…”