Water economy of the honeybee: A stoichiometric accounting

Under simulated moderate‐desert conditions (30°C, < 5% RH), isolated honeybee workers lose more water through evaporation (18.95 mg g −1 h −1 ) than they produce metabolically (2.39 mg g −1 h −1 ). At high ambient temperatures they ferry water to the hive for thermoregulatory purposes, and, in so doing, they airlift 52 mg of water, or 65% of their body mass. The extremely high metabolic demand for flight when water‐loaded (92.54 ml CO 2 g −1 h −1 ) produces almost sufficient metabolic water (74.36 mg g −1 h −1 ) to balance the simultaneous evaporative water loss (79.72 mg g −1 h −1 ). Metabolic rate and evaporative water loss are generally positively related but remarkably independent under certain conditions of activity and high ambient temperature.