88 HOMOIOTHERMISM 



(Gates, 1914). Ant societies are not so well organized 

 for maintaining high temperatures but some species build 

 their mounds in such a way that they receive a maximum 

 amount of energy from the sun. Tight roofs and inclosed 

 air spaces help to maintain higher temperatures at night. 

 Ants carry their eggs and young to the galleries within 

 their nests where temperatures are most favorable. Dur- 

 ing prolonged cloudy and cool weather, however, they 

 must remain quite inactive (Andrews, 1927). 



As an individual, no poikilotherm is able to maintain 

 a high, constant temperature in a varying environment. 

 Homoiotherms, while attaining the ability to live continu- 

 ously at a high rate, also gained the capacity to experi- 

 ence more varied sensations and to develop a better and 

 higher degree of nervous control, consciousness, and in- 

 tellect. Adaptation to life in variable land habitats has, 

 through the development of a constant optimum bodily 

 temperature, made intellectual life possible. The intel- 

 lect gives endless opportunity for experiencing, remem- 

 bering, foreseeing, planning, and surviving. It also allows 

 the highest types of intellectuals to have leisure which 

 is not spent altogether in thinking about surviving, but 

 gives time for practice, amusement, and thought concern- 

 ing better expedients for living, better ways of perform- 

 ing conventional social activities, the improvement of 

 culture, and the extension of knowledge. 



