Hematophagi: What are, characteristics and examples

Hematophagous animals are those that feed on blood. They are also known in the medical field as Blood animals.

We can find different hematophagous animals in relation to different criteria. According to your diet we can find:

• Mandatory: They are hematophagi that must necessarily feed on blood, without another type of food and throughout their lives.
• Optional: They combine blood consumption with other types of food.

There are also types of hematophages according to the groups:

• Anélidos
• Insects
• Fish
• Mammals
• Birds

As for location we can distinguish between:

• Ectoparasites: They are outside the body of organism that parasitate.
• Endoparasites: They live within another organism.

According to the level of association to whom there are:

• Permanent: They are always stuck to those who parasitate.
• Mobile: They move from one place to another, reaching different hosts.

You may be interested in what anélids are: classification and examples.

To be able to sustain this peculiar food, the hematophages have certain adaptive characteristics, which we present below:

• Hematophagi They do not kill their prey to get the bloodbecause doing so would imply that there would be no constant blood supply.
• Have Oral Appendices with those who violate bites or skin openings, and with which the liquid can suck.
• Some can inject a local anesthetic so that the dam does not feel that it is being injured to get the blood.
• These injuries They are not poisonousbecause they have the purpose of getting blood. However, they can cause itching, hemorrhages, granulomas, inflammation or diseases caused by pathogen transfer through these vectors.
• Blood has the ability to coagulate to avoid hemorrhages, and this coagulated and solidified blood cannot be ingested by hematophanes. For this reason, hematophanes They have anticoagulant substances in their saliva to suck the blood without problem.
• Those who have a completely hematophagous diet have a Digestive system adapted to a totally liquid diet. They can have specific enzymes to process the blood, bacteria with which they do symbiosis, or blind intestinal of rapid absorption.

So that you finish learning on this subject, we present some examples of hematophages and how they feed on blood.

Mosquitoes

Hematophagous insects par excellence are mosquitoes, this because They head the list of the most dangerous animals in the world for the amount of human deaths they cause. The mosquitoes Anopheles They can transmit malaria or malaria, while Aedes They bite on the day dengue, chikunguña, zika, or yellow fever. The mosquito bite brought blood from an individual infected to another healthy, carrying the disease from one place to another.

Mosquito females are the ones that bitebecause they need high amounts of protein to produce eggs. To detect blood sources, they perceive the CO2 that emanates from the skin, and make a bite to suck the blood. Discover in this article if the mosquitoes have teeth?

Gadfly

Other sucking insects are the tábanos. The females have a very strong and cutting oral piece They use to bite vertebrate animals, which, as in mosquitoes, are only females that have high protein demand that have this modified oral apparatus. In addition to biting and carrying a good skin portion, they have a porous fabric with which they absorb the blood of the dam. To avoid coagulation they have local antithrombotics called tabaninas.

Ticks

Ticks are arachnid that They use their chelickers to injure the skin To start sucking. Around they make a cement cap to hold hard. When full they drop.

During the feeding process, Lyme’s disease, Typhus, among others, which can be caused by feces or saliva. One has to Be very careful to eliminate them correctly and not crush them only, because there is a high probability that parts of the tick are generated that generate reactions such as infection and inflammation.

Hematophagous bats

Despite the fame that bats have gained in popular culture, there are only Three species of bats that suck blood and belong to the demodantine family. They live only in America, and have very pointed front teeth. They use infrared light sensors to detect the heat of hot blood animals and also help the ear to detect breathing, to turn on their prey with the help of the teeth to suck the blood. They hunt at night and take advantage of their prey are asleep. In this case, the anticoagulant is called draculina. You may be interested to know what the characteristics of bats are.

Medicinal Sangujuela (Hirudo medicinalis)

This is the Anllids representative or ringed worms Hematophagi, but we must mention that not all bloods are hematophagous. This species has a suction cup, which sticks to the dam to slowly suck the blood. They have antithrombins that prevent blood coagulation, and one of them is hirudin. These leeches have been used by medicine since the Egyptians, and today their utility to treat arthritis and osteoarthritisfor its analgesic substances.

Chupasangre Pinzón (Geospiza northern)

The vampire pinzón is a peculiar bird which feeds mainly of seeds and insects, but the fresh water of its island habitat is very scarce, so it has to complement it with other sources of vital fluid. These birds usually Give pecks on other birds, Especially piqueros, until they get blood to suck it. In addition to this diet, they complement eggs, nopales nectar, bat guano or dead fish abandoned by other predators.

Now that you know what hematophages, their characteristics and examples are, we invite you to read this other ecology article about the dipteraos: definition, characteristics and types.

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