inquiline

From Latin inquilīnus (“tenant, lodger”)

inquiline (plural inquilines)

1. (biology) An animal that lives commensally in the nest, burrow, gall, or dwelling place of an animal of another species.
   • 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:

     The other study […] involved the larvae of the caterpillar Maculinea rebeli, an inquiline of Myrmica schenki.

   • 2003, Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution:

     Queens of socially parasitic inquiline ants reproduce by laying eggs in the colonies of other species.

   • 2010, P. J. Gullan, P. S. Cranston, The Insects: An Outline of Entomology, 4th edition, page 332:

     A reproductive female inquiline gains access to a host nest and usually kills the resident queen.

2. (biology) An organism that lives within a reservoir of water collected in the hollow of a plant stem or leaf.
   • 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, page 79-89:

     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 Coquillet) the availability of captured prey limits individual growth, and ultimately population growth […]

   • 2001, J. K. Cronk, M. Siobhan Fennessy, Wetland Plants: Biology and Ecology, page 145:

     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.

• inquilinism
• inquilinous

inquiline

1. feminine of inquilin

inquiline f

1. plural of inquilina

inquiline

1. vocative singular of inquilinus