Abstract
AbstractUnder 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 CO2 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.
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