The nearer the better? Drones (Apis mellifera) prefer nearer drone congregation areas

Abstract

At 2 drone congregation areas (DCA) the relation between drone presence and distance to the apiary of origin was studied. Two methods were applied. First, drones were caught and marked on the DCA and later recovered in the colonies. Second, drones which were marked before at the apiary (in the colonies) were subsequently recaptured on both DCA's. The 2 methods led to identical conclusions. Consistently in each of 3 years the majority of the drones from each of the 3 apiaries was found at the nearer DCA. There was, however, no direct correlation between the flight distances and the ratio of drones visiting from each apiary. Thus some other factors ("attractiveness" of the DCA) may also have influenced the choice of the drones. Our findings support the idea that there is an orientation phase during which drones explore several DCA's before each drone stays at 1 DCA, and energetic choices made by drones in relation to flight distances seem to be important. The choice of the nearer DCA would permit the drone to prolong his presence at the DCA and increase his chances to mate: "the nearer the better"! The drone's strategy to chose the nearer DCA would boost the genetic representation of local colonies and this "drone clumping" would increase genetic differences among the DCA's within an area. In this context the choice of virgin queens among DCA's is of great significance.

The physical, insemination, and reproductive quality of honey bee queens (Apis mellifera L.)

“…Abiotic factors, such as weather and geographic location, could affect the insemination quality of the queens simply because of the inherent variation in local mating environments (e.g., Lensky and Demter, 1985;da Silva et al, 1995). Differing weather conditions during mating flights and overall differing climates at the various drone congregation areas could result in variation in insemination quality (see Koeniger et al, 2005). Biotic factors, such as differences in drone availability, density, and sperm loads among males, could also create significant variation among queens (Haberl and Tautz, 1999;Schluns et al, 2003).…”

Honeybee drones are attracted by groups of consexuals in a walking simulator

“…In previous studies, long poles or helium balloons have been used to present stimuli to drones within the congregation (Gary, 1962;Butler and Fairey, 1964;Ruttner and Ruttner, 1966;Gerig, 1971;Koeniger et al, 2005a;Brockmann et al, 2006). However, such field studies are arduous and experimental conditions can be difficult to control in a satisfactory manner.…”

The size of wild honeybee populations (Apis mellifera) and its implications for the conservation of honeybees

“…They usually fly further than the drones on their mating flights (Ruttner and Ruttner 1972) to more distant DCAs (Koeniger et al 2005). If we conservatively assume that queens fly as far as drones, the sampling radius will be on average at least twice as far compared to the procedure where drones are sampled on a single DCA site (10.0 km² instead of 2.5 km²).…”