Global variation in honey bee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) mating flight times

During the mating season, male (drone) honey bees (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) make daily flights to drone congregation areas (DCAs) for the purpose of mating with a virgin queen. The timing of these flights (drone flight period) varies between geographic regions. However, the spatial scale over which variation occurs and the mechanisms contributing to this variation are unknown. We present an assessment of the drone flight period in Waikato, Aotearoa-New Zealand by quantifying drone activity at the entrances of 15 managed hives at 60-minute intervals between the hours of 10:00 am and 18:00 on four consecutive days. We determined the Waikato drone flight period to occur between 14:00 and 17:00, with peak activity around 16:00. Moreover, we compiled global drone flight periods gleaned from the literature. Considerable variation was apparent in the reported duration, start time, and ending time of drone flight periods. Nonetheless, 91% of flight periods began after 12:00, with median beginning and ending times of 13:30 and 17:00, respectively. Ours is the first record of the drone flight period in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and the aggregation of published global drone flight periods supports further exploration of spatial variation in the timing of honey bee mating activity.