hematophagy

alternative hematophagia · alternative haematophagy

1. uncountableThe practice, of some animals, of feeding on blood.

   Most Lower brachyceran taxa also have nectarivorous or related fluid diets..., although a few basal clades have shifted to predominantly hematophagy; particularly the Spaniidae, Anthericidae, Xylophagidae, and certain lineages within the Tabanidae.

   2005, Conrad C. Labandeira, “Fossil History and Evolutionary Ecology of Diptera and Their Associations with Plants”, in David K. Yeates, Brian M. Wiegmann, editors, The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, page 239

   Synonyms: hematophagia