0 Animals that are poikilothermic have body temperatures that changes with the temperature around them.
The slow rate of engorgement on tortoises is due to the low body temperatures of these poikilothermic hosts.
In common with most physiological processes in poikilothermic animals, inter-stadial development rates of ticks increase non-linearly with increasing ambient temperature.
In this way, the temperature-sensing ability of membranes becomes an ideal mechanism for regulating physiological processes in poikilothermic organisms.
It is hypothesized that the physico-chemical milieu of the conjunctiva and cornea helped to adapt the originally ' poikilothermic microsporidian ' to the conditions within the homoiothermic organism.
We were no longer poikilothermic, to use a medical term.
This difference in energy requirement also means that a given food source can support a greater density of poikilothermic animals than homeothermic animals.
This makes them homeothermic when active, and poikilothermic when at rest.
However, animals with facultative endothermy are often poikilothermic, meaning that their temperature can vary considerably.
