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Hematophagy (sometimes spelled haematophagy or hematophagia) is the practice by certain animals of feeding on blood (from the Greek words αἷμα haima "blood" and φαγεῖν phagein "to eat"). Since blood is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious proteins and lipids that can be taken without great effort, hematophagy is a preferred form of ...
Animal venoms contain enzymes and other proteins that are haemotoxic or neurotoxic or occasionally both (as in the Mojave rattlesnake, the Japanese mamushi, [1] and similar species). In addition to killing the prey, part of the function of a haemotoxic venom for some animals is to aid digestion.
The prey is usually sucked in and swallowed whole. Some Rhynchobdellida however suck the soft tissues from their prey, making them intermediate between predators and blood-suckers. [38] Leech attacking a slug. Blood-sucking leeches use their anterior suckers to connect to hosts for feeding.
Their food source is the blood of other animals, a dietary trait called hematophagy. Three extant bat species feed solely on blood: the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata), and the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi). Two extinct species of the genus Desmodus have been found in North ...
Fleas are wingless insects, 1.5 to 3.3 millimetres (1 ⁄ 16 to 1 ⁄ 8 inch) long, that are agile, usually dark colored (for example, the reddish-brown of the cat flea), with a proboscis, or stylet, adapted to feeding by piercing the skin and sucking their host's blood through their epipharynx. Flea legs end in strong claws that are adapted to ...
The gnathosoma is a feeding structure with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood; it is the front of the head and contains neither the brain nor the eyes. [18] Features of the gnathosoma include two palps, two chelicerae, and hypostome. The hypostome acts as stabilizer and helps to anchor the tick's mouthparts to the host. [20]
Pediculus humanus capitis by Des Helmore. The head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) is an obligate ectoparasite of humans. [1] Head lice are wingless insects that spend their entire lives on the human scalp and feed exclusively on human blood. [1]
Tardigrades feed by sucking animal or plant cell fluids, or on detritus. A pair of stylets pierce the prey; the pharynx muscles then pump the fluids from the prey into the gut. A pair of salivary glands secrete a digestive fluid into the mouth, and produce replacement stylets each time the animal molts. [3]