Draculais probably good knownfor tope blood . But while Dracula might bemostlyfictional , the animate being that fuddle rake are very real . Here are six of the earth ’s finesthematophages .
rent ’s come out by getting the obvious one out of the way first . mosquito just suck ( get it ? ) . They ’re the deadly creatures on the face of our planet , killing more the great unwashed each year than all the sharks , hippos , and dolphins combined . As Joe Hanson explains in the video below , the few hundred mosquito specie who feed on human line – and it ’s only the females who do so – are directly creditworthy for the death of some 45 million people each class . That ’s because when the mosquito sucks up your blood , it leaves behind somePlasmodium sponger , which make malaria . As Dickson D. Despommier , a professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia UniversitytoldNew York Times science author Natalie Angier in 1990 , ” about half of all people who have ever lived on earth have died from malaria or malaria - touch on job … That ’s an astonishing whim . ”
Mosquitoes may be just the worst , but they ’ve got their own blood line suck parasites to contend with . That ’s right ; mosquito suffer from even tinier blood lollipop . The trivial critters that draw the blood out of mosquito are tiny small midges calledCulicoides anophelis . They were first get wind in 1922 , but it was only late that a group of research worker really paid them any existent attention . As dangerous as mosquitoes are for us , imagine what it would be like to be a mosquito and to have to contend with a dinner - plate sized midge landing on you to imbibe out your blood . Kind of pull in you sense unsound for the mosquito , does n’t it ?
Jennifer Frazerexplainsat Scientific American :
It has been receive to parasitize at least 19 species of mosquito , but it has also been collected sop up line of descent directly from Buffalo and cattle .
Culicoides midge are live carriers of bluetongue virus , Oropouche virus and Schmallenburg computer virus while mosquito they parasitize bear Dengue , West Nile , and Japanese phrenitis computer virus . If mosquito are pilot dirty syringes that circulate disease among humans , bloodsucking midge may further clamber the disease load , insert unexampled virus to new vector , and mostly add another order of order of magnitude to disease transmission calculus . But no one really have intercourse .
Catfish may look kind of freaky , what with those longbarbelshanging down from their mouths , but what ’s even freakier is that there ’s a radical of them in South America who drink blood . And not just any blood ; they want it fresh from the reference .
Researchers make love for some clock time that the small catfishes calledpygidiids could be lured with raw meat and sometimes fed on dead mammals left in the water . In 1960 , one researcher caught one of the lineage - suckers and “ permitted [ it ] to secure onto his helping hand for a curt while during which metre it succeeded in drawing stock , apparently using its mouth as a suck apparatus and rasp with the long teeth in the halfway part of its upper jaw . ” It seemed , he added , “ to be utterly avid for a repast of blood and had to be forcibly dispatch . ” Yum .
give all that , it may seem like these crazy fiddling catfish just go for anything fucking . But in 1959 , the Cleveland Aquarium became home to 4 of the fish , calledcandirus . The custodian there try on to feed them frozen brine shrimp , hold out worms , chopped worm , bleak smelt , mince raw smelt , freshly killed goldfish , or goldfish blood .
But the candirus were n’t having any of it . For three day the candirus conserve their hunger smash . And then , on the third sidereal day , a half - pound goldfish was put into their aquarium . Almost immediately , according to the reputation , three of the four latch onto the Carassius auratus under its gills and began sucking roue .
“ Whenever a Carassius auratus was introduce into the candirus ’ fish tank , [ the candirus ] swim quickly around its head , touching , or nearly touching , it with their own,”report the researchers . They did n’t force their way inside ; alternatively , they look for the goldfish ’s gill to open up naturally during respiration , and then they latch on . “ Almost straight off after the anterior part of a candiru had vanish under the gill cover , its paunch would begin to well with parentage . ” Larger goldfish could sustain multiple alimentation . Sadly , small goldfish usually died after just one attack .
Candirus are n’t the only fish that feast on lineage . lamprey eel look more like extraterrestrial being from another planet than even old fish , but they ’re fish just the same . They hold out both in saucy and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks piddle all over the cosmos , and while they ’re shivery enough in their own ecosystems , they ’ve even worse when they ’re invasive . When the Erie Canal first connected the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean , the lampreys invaded . They totally decimated several aboriginal lake fish metal money , some of which are now extinct , and now and again attacked man as well … but only if they were pathetic hunters to begin with . The statistic account by the USGS arestriking : “ Lake trout apprehension in Lake Huron fell from 3.4 million pounds in 1937 to virtual failure in 1947 . In Lake Michigan , U.S. catch fell from 5.5 million pounds in 1946 to 402 pounds in 1953 . In Lake Superior , snatch dropped from an average of 4.5 million pound to 368 thousand pound in 1961 . ”
What list of profligate sucking critter would be perfect without the aptly named vampire bat ? All three vampire bat species are aboriginal to Central and South America , and all ask rip to survive .
you may roost easily knowing that the hairy - legged vampire bat and blanched - winged vampire bat both prefer the rake coursing through the nervure of doll . But the common vampire squash racket course mostly on mammal , include humans . The common vampire bat has a hole-and-corner weapon for address with specially furry mammals – it uses its razor - sharp incisors to shave away the hair , allow it to pierce the peel with its remaining teeth and slurp up the oozing profligate . And it ’s get another weapon system . Inside vampire bat saliva are a band of compounds that prevent coagulation , keeping the line of descent bag bleeding for as long as potential .
It all sounds a bit macabre , but lamia bat have proven quite useful to researchers studyingaltruismin the animal kingdom . That ’s because squash racquet that have eat well on any given night will chuck blood into the mouths of hungry bats . And they do n’t just feed their own kin , making it truly altruistic . And that ’s good , because on another nighttime , that well - feed bat might line up itself in need of a substantial repast . At one sentence , researchers guess that hungry bat had to harass their friends to get some tasty rake nauseant , but more recently they ’ve seen bats approach their athirst settlement - mates and offer up some blood nauseant without being prompted . Now that is truthful friendship .
There are blood sucking mammals , fish , and worm . But for sure Bronx cheer are more civilized ? Wrong .
see the sharpbeaked ground finch , a chick that lives in the Galapagos that is also sometimes called the vampire finch . They do n’t swear solely on blood ; like other finches , they peck at at seeds . But every once in a while avampire finchhas a craving for the warm scarlet stuff . So it try out one of the most iconic fauna of the Galapagos , a seabird call a dumbbell . It pecks at the bird ’s back until it draws line of descent , volunteer gentle access for a nice warm meal . But they do n’t over - peck . They draw enough blood to eat , but limit their pecking . Otherwise , they ’ll cause too much painful sensation and the boob will dog them out or fight back . That means that there ’s a vampire dinosaur . Which would have made the Twilight movies far more interesting .
Thevampire squid’sLatin name , Vampyroteuthis infernalis , literally intend “ vampire squid from hell . ” It ’s a tiny deep - sea dwelling cephalopod mollusk , seldom grow over six inches in distance , but it has giant eyes . It ’s really got the largest middle - to - body ratio in the entire animal kingdom ; a six - column inch individual will have heart around an inch in diameter , enable it to better see in the dark ocean depth .
Sadly , the vampire squid does n’t actually drink blood ; it survive by gobbling upmarine C. P. Snow . It gets its name instead because it appears to have a cape , made of webbing between its branch , evocative of the one often endure by Count Dracula .
AnimalsBirdscephalopodsMosquitoesScience
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