What does "inquiline" mean?

An animal that lives commensally in the nest, burrow, gall, or dwelling place of an animal of another species.

How do you pronounce "inquiline"?

Pronounced //ˈɪŋkwɪlaɪn//.

//ˈɪŋkwɪlaɪn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

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

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

From Latin inquilīnus (“tenant, lodger”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.