inquiline

Noun

inquiline (plural inquilines)

1. An animal that lives commensally in the nest, burrow, gall, or dwelling place of an animal of another species.
   • The other study[…]involved the larvae of the caterpillar Maculinea rebeli, an inquiline of Myrmica schenki.2003, Gary J. Blomquist, Ralph W. Howard, “Pheromone biosynthesis in social insects”, in Gary J. Blomquist, Richard G. Vogt, editors, Insect Pheromone Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, page 331
   • Queens of socially parasitic inquiline ants reproduce by laying eggs in the colonies of other species.2003, Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution
2. An organism that lives within a reservoir of water collected in the hollow of a plant stem or leaf.
   • Captured prey also constitute the resource base for a community of inquiline bacteria, protozoa, and invertebrates that inhabit the water-filled pitchers. For at least two of these inquilines (the pitcher-plant mosquito Wyeomyia smithii Coquillet and the pitcher-plant midge Metriocnemus knabi...1998, Stephen B. Heard, “Capture rates of invertebrate prey by the pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea L.”, in The American Midland Naturalist, volume 139, number 1, pages 79–89
   • The insect and other animal inhabitants of the pitchers, known collectively as the inquilines, may benefit the plants by breaking down prey and making nutrients available for plant absorption.2001, J. K. Cronk, M. Siobhan Fennessy, Wetland Plants: Biology and Ecology, page 145