Notes on the fauna of pitcher-plants from Singapore Island. C. Dover {and others
This is the front matter of a multi-author article by Cedric Dover, Louis Fage, Stanley Hirst, W. H. T. Tams, and Ekendanath Ghosh, published in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1928), documenting the fauna associated with Nepenthes pitcher-plants on Singapore Island.
Summary
The opening pages (p. 1) conclude a general introduction to pitcher-plant fauna, referencing the well-known Sarracenia associates such as the blue-banded anthophorid bees and the Culicid Wyeomyia smithi, whose eggs hatch only when pitchers refill with water. The authors also note the broader parallel with Bromeliaceae leaf-base faunas, which include invertebrates and even vertebrates.
The Singapore-specific section then begins, noting that Culicid larvae are the most abundant insect associates, but that a minute thread-like worm (not classifiable within Anguillidae or Mermithidae) is the most common organism, particularly in N. ampullaria. A small Noctuid moth is described as a regular associate of N. rafflesiana, with larvae living and pupating on the pitcher’s conducting surface while the adult consistently escapes unharmed. The most curious associate identified is a small red spider attracted to N. gracilis by insect remains, which moves freely over the gland-studded pitcher surface without being harmed by the secretion (p. 1).