The inquilism is the biological phenomenon that describes the interaction established between a living organism (tenant) in another space (cave hole, etc.). An example of tenancy is an insect that lives in a burrow of a squirrel or termites that live in an anthill.
Tenantism is a commensal relationship in which the home of one species serves to survive another species. In fact, there are also cases in which one species (its body) is the habitation or refuge of another. For example, crustaceans that live in whales.
Two specimens of Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus inhabiting a tree, an example of inquilinismo
There are straightforward, simple tenant relationships, but there are more complex ones involving multiple species. For example, a species that lives within another, which in turn is a tenant of a third.
You can see relationships of plant-plant, animal-animal, plant-animal, and many other occupations that also involve fungi and other organisms. In the first case, we have as an example the epiphytic plants that live on others, but not directly from them, that is, they do not parasitize it.
In the second case, we have as an example the crustaceans that live attached to the skin of a whale. It takes them for hundreds or thousands of kilometers, traveling safe roads, protected from predators and with access to a lot of food.
Finally, in the animal-plants case, we have crustaceans that live in carnivorous plants which they help digest their prey. None of them eat each other, if not others. The same receptacle of the carnivorous plant serves as a refuge, and its food fluids, for certain mosquitoes.
Index [ Hide ]
- 1How does tenancy work?
- 1Benefits for the tenant
- 2If damage to the host is parasitism
- 2Examples of tenant species
- 1Insects
- 2Birds and other vertebrates
- 3Plants
- 3References
How does tenancy work?
Many orchids are epiphytic tenants of a huge diversity of plants (Source: Rhododendrites / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) via Wikimedia Commons)
Tenantism works as a mechanism for obtaining benefits without prejudice to the grantor. The species that donates, or allows the use of its domicile, loses nothing; the tenant species obtains leftovers from food, physical protection (refuge), etc.
If the tenant species lives on another that moves, it also gets a means of transportation.
Tenantism works as an interspecific interaction and involves different species.
Tenant benefits
The key to this interaction is that the tenant receives a series of benefits that do not mean harm to the host body. It is more a guest than a tenant, because it does not necessarily have to provide a benefit to the host. In other words, you are a tenant who does not pay rent.
If the host is damaged it is parasitism
In a way, all species are either tenants of some, or hosts of others. Take trees as an example: they provide physical support for the coexistence of other plants or birds, or even internally, as burrows of many different animal species.
Different species of insects also inhabit rabbit holes.
None of these species damages the tree. If so, it is not then a case of tenantism but of parasitism, which also usually occurs with some pests.
Tenant relationships are observed in all environments. Humans have, for example, many species of mites that are our tenants … for life.
Others, however, are not pleasant residents, and they really infest and / or parasitize us.
Examples of tenant species
Tenants exist in burrows of prairie dogs when they are also inhabited by species of insects and arthropods
For zoologists in particular, a tenant animal species is one that lives as a diner in the residence of another animal species. There it is used to obtain shelter and food.
Some insects (many different species, in fact) can live in the burrow of field mice and feed on the waste left by homeowners. They can also feed on the fungi that reside in the burrow. There, everyone has their community refuge.
Plants on the other hand, physically constitute a refuge themselves. They provide adhesion support or construction, or more internally, of room for many different species. These involve insects, arachnids, crustaceans, mollusks, algae, other plants, vertebrates , etc.
Insects
The bee Triepeolus remigatus, is a tenant of the nest of the bee Peponapis pruinosa (now Eucera pruinosa) (Source: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab from Beltsville, Maryland, USA / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Certain, but not all, insects behave like good tenants of plants. Among them we find some beetles. These, in addition, can be tenants of ant colonies in other environments.
In fact, termite and ant nests, not necessarily in plants, can house a great diversity of individuals of different species.
It has also been observed that some ants become tenants of other ant nests, even if they are from ants of a different species. There they obtain shelter and food.
On the other hand, sometimes the queen of one bee hive also becomes a forced tenant of another hive, eating from the food of the resident queen.
Birds and other vertebrates
Owl chicks inhabiting tree
Plants allow the construction of bird nests, which are not harmful to them. These tenants derive more benefits from a healthy and strong plant than from one that is not. A resistant plant, with good foliage and good bearing, constitutes an excellent domicile for these species that, for the most part, do not represent an additional cost for them.
Strange as it may seem, because it appears to be physically damaged, a tree can also provide internal shelter in its trunk for certain mammals (squirrels), amphibians (salamanders) and birds (owls).
Our homes are also a haven for small mammals that pose no greater danger unless their populations spiral out of control and become a pest.
Plants
The clearest case of plant occupancy is represented by epiphytic (not parasitic) plants. In this case, the epiphytic plant, as its name implies, lives on another that gives it a home. They look at them, isolate themselves from the ground, and absorb water from the rain or the environment.
In most cases, this joint coexistence does not represent a burden for the plant that houses the tenants. Some well-known epiphytes include orchids and bromeliads. Plants are excellent shelter also for tenants lichen, fern and moss.
