nepenthebiont

English

Noun

nepenthebiont (plural nepenthebionts)

1. Any animal that lives in, and is dependent on, the pitcher of a Nepenthes^ws pitcher plant.
   • 1983, John Howard Frank, Phytotelmata: Terrestrial Plants as Hosts for Aquatic Insect Communities:

     Nepenthebiont animals are characteristic of the pitchers and their aquatic stages are not known to occur in other habitats.

   • 1984, Anthony J. Whitten, The Ecology of Sumatra, page 349:

     Nepenthebiont species normally live only in pithers^[sic] and these account for 66% of the pitcher fauna found in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.

   • 2008, Menno Schilthuizen, The Loom of Life: Unravelling Ecosystems, page 9:

     Meanwhile, communities of specialised pitcher-dwellers (so-called nepenthebionts) set up in the water volume to take advantage of the food provided by the decaying mass of insect remains at the bottom.