A Study of Honey Bee Drone Attraction in the Mating Response13

Abstract

The primary drone congregation area of Apis mellifera L. discovered by Zmarlicki and Morse in 1962 has persisted unchanged through 1965–68; their secondary congregation areas were little changed in 1967–68. A substantial decrease in the number of drones available to these areas had little effect on drone attraction at a given site. Three primary drone congregation areas were mapped. They varied in size, but had boundaries marked by vertical relief (trees, buildings, etc.). Surface (ground) conditions do not seem to affect drone congregation. The author was not able to destroy congregation areas with benzaldehyde, a known bee repellent, or with the alarm substances isopentyl acetate and 2-hepatone. However, large amounts of the synthetic sex attractant produced “artificial” congregation areas. Within a congregation area, drones discriminated between objects bearing the synthetic sex attractant. For a given object a 10.06% increase in the amount of attractant produced a 1% increase in attraction, for a range of 0.005-5 mg of attractant. Increasing the size of the object from 3 cm2, slightly smaller than a normal queen, by multiples of 2 to 384 cm2 resulted in progressively decreased drone attraction. Drones were able to distinguish and seemed to have preference for darker colors and certain shapes.