Vampire animals are usually so-called because of their blood-based diets. The vampire bat is the most well-known, but it's not the only animal associated with the mythical blood-sucking figure of the vampire.
But while some are named after the vampire, they don't partake in a drop of the red stuff at all – or at least have developed specific feeding strategies other than blood-sucking. From a deep-sea creature that can turn itself inside out to a somewhat cannibalistic ant, here are 6 vampire animals.
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Vampire animals
Vampire bat
The vampire bat has suffered from a historically bad reputation, with a popular myth being that it violently attacked prey and drained its blood. However, the truth is less dramatic – they make a small cut with their teeth and lap up the flowing blood with their tongue. And as they’re so small, the amount equates to little more than a spoonful.
Just two nights of failing to feed could mean death for a vampire bat, so a sharing system has evolved in the females. Female vampire bats vomit up congealed blood for their roost-mates so no-one goes without – and it also encourages strong social bonds to form.
Vampire squid
The vampire squid’s binomial (Latin) name is Vampyroteuthis infernalis, meaning ‘vampire squid from hell’. But despite its name – inspired by its dark colour and cloak-like webbing – it’s neither vampire nor squid. And it doesn’t feed on blood, preferring ‘marine snow’ such as faeces, dead invertebrates and other debris that drifts down from the surface waters.
This creature is the sole member of its own cephalopod order. While the vampire squid has eight legs like an octopus, it cannot change its skin colour as the pigment organs that allow most cephalopods to do this are poorly developed. However, it can turn itself ‘inside out’ in a rather frightening way.
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Vampire spider
Evarcha culicivora (also known as the vampire spider) is a member of the jumping spider family. While it doesn’t look very terrifying, it has developed a very specific way of devouring blood.
As the spider is so tiny, it can’t pierce a mammal’s skin. So instead, it targets and eats female mosquitos that have already filled up on blood. By using the mosquitoes as a go-between, it acts as more of an indirect vampire.
Vampire ground finch
The vampire ground finch lives on Wolf and Darwin Islands, which are the most far-flung of the Galápagos Islands. As the islands are so remote, food can be scarce.
So in the dry season, vampire ground finches feed on the blood of other birds such as the Nazca or red-footed booby. The finch pecks the larger bird and laps up the blood from the wound. The boobies usually ignore their attackers and a booby that tries to bat away a blood-sucking finch usually gets swarmed by many more.
Dracula ant
Like most other ant species, Dracula ants bring food to its developing larvae at the nest. However, the adults can only survive on haemolymph (the insect equivalent of blood) from their own grubs, resulting in the larvae being scratched and chewed at until they bleed.
This doesn’t kill the larvae but it does stunt their development – and escape attempts of the larvae have been documented. This behaviour is known as non-destructive cannibalism.
Vampire moth
Calyptra is a genus of moths and many of the belonging species have the common name of vampire moths. This refers to the habit that the males have of drinking blood from vertebrates – including mammals.
But this winged creature rocked the scientific world when a Russian scientist observed vampire moths sucking on human blood in a laboratory experiment in 1999. However, it is thought that this behaviour does not occur in the wild, as it has only been observed in laboratory and other controlled environments.
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Top image: a vampire squid. Credit: Getty