INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 



39 



of Bats have shown that fruit is an important article of diet, 

 but others are known to feed more or less on insects. This is 

 the case with the Long-tongued Shrew- Bat (Glossophaga soricina), 

 in which the long mobile tongue has a thick and roughened 

 end. It is exceedingly probable that this organ is used in 

 capturing the small insects harboured in the recesses of flowers, 

 though this may not be its only use, for in an allied form it can be 



Fig. 332. —A Javelin- Bat [Phyllostoina spectrum) 



dexterously employed in scraping away the pulp of certain sorts of 

 fruit. 



South America is also the home of two species of True or 

 Blood-sucking Vampires. These creatures are provided with 

 sharp -edged incisors, well -developed tusks, and cutting pre- 

 molars. Darwin actually saw an individual belonging to the 

 larger and commoner species {Desmodus rufus) engaged in 

 sucking the blood from one of his horses. The teeth of these 

 creatures are admirably suited for snipping off little bits of 

 epidermis, so as to wound the underlying dermis, which is richly 

 provided with blood-vessels. The stomach of these creatures is 

 modified in accordance with the blood-sucking habit, for instead 



