The talk of pheromones makes me wonder if the DCA have their own smell. A
queen could theoretically avoid a congregation area that smelled related
(reducing the chance of inbreeding) whereas drones could seek them out.
That's assuming of course that they are not so spread out that they don't
have a detectable smell overall. I wouldn't even know where to begin to
gauge that since bees and other organisms are so much better at deteching
odors as it is they make better detectors than most technology we have.
I suppose it might be possible to identify nearby DCAs and track flight
direction of drones and queens leaving on mating flights to see if there is
a difference. Heck for that matter it could have nothing to do with smell
if queens search East and drones to the West. Sounds like time for some
literature searching.
Jeremy
West Michigan
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