vampire bat (vampirbat)

One of several different species of bats. (a) One of various large frugivorous bats of Africa, Asia, and the Malay archipel commonly called flying - foxes, such as the species of Pteropus, Harpyia, etc. The name appears to be due to some superstition, or to a fancied resemblance of these creatures to the spectral beings denominated vampires. (b) One of various bats of South America, of the in sec which are noted for sucking blood. (1) There are numerous species of several genera of the family Phyllos to matidæ, among them the Phyllos tom a spectrum, popularly known the vampire-bat, some two feet in expanse of wing. But this species, like most others of the family, is perfectly harmle . (2) The bats which actually suck blood belong to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla, for which a special group named Hæmatophilina or Desmo dontes has been formed, and which are also sometimes separated as a family, Desmodidæ. These have a small bifid foliaceous appendage on the nose; the tail and interfemoral membrane are little developed. Their peculiar characteristics are two large projecting upper incisors and two lancet-shaped superior canine teeth, all sharp pointed, and so arranged as to make a triple puncture like that of the leech; a tongue capable of considerable extension, and furnished at its extremity with a number of papillæ arranged so as to form an organ of suction; and an intestine relatively shorter than in any other mammal. Altogether their structure points them out as designed to live on blood alone. They attack horses and cattle, and sometimes even man in his sleep. Also vampire and vam pyre. See cuts under Desmodontes. tivorous division of the order Chiropter a, only a few of bats are not the true blood-suckers, but include numerous insectivorous and frugivorous species, referable to several genera. See vampire - bat (b), and compare Desmodontes. Vampyridæt (vam-pir'i-dē), n. pl. [NL. (Bonaparte, 1837), ... 2. [ "If you could only get that motion into a machine," said a gentleman, as he watched the proce of making a van on a shovel, and saw the copper roll up to the highest point, "it would beat the world for slime-dre ing." F. G. Coggin, Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., XII. 64. 3. A vane, as of a feather; hence, a wing. His vans no longer could his flight sustain. Dryden, tr. of Ovid's Meta morph., xii. 750. As bats at the wired windows of a dairy, They beat their vans . Shelley, Witch of Atlas, xvi. Having the character of a vampire; pertaining to vampires or the belief in them: as, vampiric habits, literature, or superstition. n. vampirism (vampīr-izm), [= F. vam pirisme; as vampire + -ism.] 1. Belief in the existence of vampires. See vampire, 1. a little, I went at it too. To vamp up, to hatch up; make up or put together out of odds and ends, or out of nothing. I sat myself down and vamped up a fine flaunting poetical panegyric. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, xxx. The "Half-Pay Officer," a vamped - up farce, by Molloy. Doran, Annals of the Stage, I. xvii. II. in trans. To improvise musical accompaniments. [Colloq.]