associations with species of pitcher plants are so many and varied that the study of "nepenthes" infauna is something of a discipline in its own right. "camponotus schmitzi", the diving ant, has an intimate degree of mutualism with the pitcher plant "nepenthes bicalcarata"; it not only retrieves prey and detritus from beneath the surface of the liquid in the pitchers, but repels herbivores, and cleans the pitcher peristome, maintaining its slippery nature. the ants have been reported to attack struggling prey, hindering their escape, so there might be an element of myrmecotrophy to the relationship. numerous species of mosquitoes lay their eggs in the liquid, where their larvae play various roles, depending on species; some eat microbes and detritus, as is common among mosquito larvae, whereas some species of "toxorhynchites" also breed in pitchers, and their larvae are predators of other species of mosquito larvae. apart from the crab spiders on pitchers, an actual small, red crab "geosesarma malayanum" will enter the fluid, robbing and scavenging, though reputedly it does so at some risk of being captured and digested itself.