==========+==========+============+===========+ | Age | Skink | Air | Date | and sex |temperature |temperature| ----------+----------+------------+-----------+ March 23 | Ad. [F] | 20.8 | 12.4 | March 23 | young | 24.7 | 12.4 | March 25 | Ad. [M] | 22.8 | 12.5 | March 25 | young | 21.0 | 12.5 | March 25 | young | 25.7 | 14.5 | March 25 | young | 22.5 | 14.5 | March 27 | Ad. [M] | 26.6 | 16.5 | March 27 | young | 22.0 | 16.5 | March 27 | Ad. [F] | 22.5 | 16.5 | March 27 | Ad. [F] | 20.5 | 16.2 | March 27 | Ad. [F] | 26.5 | 19.3 | March 27 | Ad. [F] | 30.7 | 19.3 | April 4 | young | 22.0 | 18.1 | April 5 | Ad. [F] | 26.0 | 13.0 | April 6 | Ad. [M] | 31.5 | 13.5 | April 6 | Ad. [M] | 23.7 | 16.0 | April 6 | Ad. [F] | 22.2 | 16.0 | April 6 | Ad. [M] | 20.0 | 16.0 | April 6 | Ad. [F] | 20.0 | 16.0 | April 6 | Ad. [F] | 26.5 | 20.3 | April 20 | Ad. [F] | 29.7 | 17.2 | April 20 | Ad. [F] | 25.8 | 17.2 | ----------+----------+------------+-----------+ Recent studies by Cowles and Bogert (1944:288-289) and Bogert (1949:198) have brought out the fact that terrestrial poikilotherms, and especially lizards, maintain fairly high and constant body temperatures through behavioral thermoregulation, during their periods of activity. For genera and species of lizards, there are optimum body temperatures, which the individual tends to maintain, fluctuating within a range of only a few degrees while it is active. Forms that are not closely related may differ notably in their optimum temperatures, although within any one genus the range is slight. For example in the iguanid genus, _Sceloporus_, Bogert found that different species from such distant regions as Arizona and Florida agreed in having body temperatures approximating 35° or 36°C., while different members of the teiid genus _Cnemidophorus_ in the same two regions were found to approximate 41°C. in mean temperatures. In commenting on the distribution of North American lizards as affected by opportunity for behavioral thermoregulation by direct insolation, Bogert (_op. cit._:205) wrote: "Such secretive lizards as skinks (principally _Eumeces_ in North America) with low body temperature preferences approximating 30°C. are dominant in Florida and the Gulf Coast, in contrast to the Teiidae and Iguanidae (several genera in the United States), which are far more abundant in the arid regions of the Southwest." Bogert and Cowles (1947:19) record that in a large individual of _Eumeces inexpectatus_ taken near the Archbold Biological Station in Florida, the body temperature was 33.2°C.