bat A type of winged mammal comprising more than 1,100 separate species — or one in every four known species of mammal.
bed bug A parasitic insect that feeds exclusively on blood. The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, sucks human blood and is mainly active at night. The insect’s bite can cause skin rashes and welts that look like a mosquito bite.
bug The slang term for an insect. Sometimes it’s even used to refer to a germ.
organism Any living thing, from elephants and plants to bacteria and other types of single-celled life.
prey (n.) Animal species eaten by others. (v.) To attack and eat another species.
spider A type of arthropod with four pairs of legs that usually spin threads of silk that they can use to create webs or other structures.
tick A small eight-legged blood-sucking arthropod, related to spiders and mites. Although they look like bugs, these are not insects. They attach themselves to the skin of their host and feed on their blood. But in the process, they may spread any germs that could have been present in the blood of an earlier host.
vampire A word used to describe an organism that feeds on blood.
vampire bat A bat that feeds on the blood of animals, such as cows, pigs and birds.
vampire moth A moth in the group Calyptra. Some feed only on fruit, while others also drink animal blood.
vampire spider A spider that eats mosquitoes that have fed on blood.
