I got the following comment Off List.  It brought up an interesting  point 
- one that I think might be of interest to both the author and to the  Bee-L 
Congregation :).  I like questions that cause me to stop and  to think once 
in awhile.

<I was asked: "Up to now I have only seen the phrase “drone  congregation 
areas.” It sounds much better to me.">
 
This comment is correct about the phrase "drone congregation area".   The 
places where drones gather have been called DCAs for Drone  Congregation 
Areas - I assume the authors of the phrase DCA were using  the definition of  
"gathered for an event" or "in attendance".   But the primary definition of 
the word "congregation" implies  "church".  
 

Aggregation is a synonym of congregation, meaning a group or mass, in this  
case of drones.  In biology, the word aggregation has the ecological  
meaning of "a group sharing the same space", most often applied to  organisms 
living in the same space.
 
Scientist's are not supposed  to anthropomorphize animal behavior, yet  the 
bee literature breaks that rule all the time - division of labor, nurse  
bees, undertaker bees, "dance" language, etc.  It might be fun to list  how 
many examples we can find of this - one of the oddities of papers about  bees, 
even the "scientific, peer-reviewed" articles turn a blind eye  to this 
trend.
 
So, you can choose to call these DCAs and perpetuate  the convention of 
breaking the rule by using the word congregation. Just  keep in mind that the 
phrase DCA implies that the drones know that  they are gathered for the event 
of a queen passing by; or maybe that  they just want to hang out with the 
boys - both of which have  "human-like behavioral" implications. 
 
I actually like word aggregation better - its a  more neutral statement - 
they're all gathered in the same space. 
 
Jerry
 

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