Harmonic radar tracking reveals that honeybee drones navigate between multiple aerial leks

J. L. Woodgate, James C. Makinson, N. Rossi, K. S. Lim, A. M. Reynolds, C. J. Rawlings, L. Chittka

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Male honeybees (drones) are thought to congregate in large numbers in particular “drone congregation areas” to mate. We used harmonic radar to record the flight paths of individual drones and found that drones favored certain locations within the landscape which were stable over two years. Drones often visit multiple potential lekking sites within a single flight and take shared flight paths between them. Flights between such sites are relatively straight and begin as early as the drone's second flight, indicating familiarity with the sites acquired during initial learning flights. Arriving at congregation areas, drones display convoluted, looping flight patterns. We found a correlation between a drone's distance from the center of each area and its acceleration toward the center, a signature of collective behavior leading to congregation in these areas. Our study reveals the behavior of individual drones as they navigate between and within multiple aerial leks.
Original languageEnglish
Article number102499
Number of pages19
JournaliScience
Volume24
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Open Access - Access Right Statement

©2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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