Either one of two or more species of South American
   blood-sucking bats belonging to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. These
   bats are destitute of molar teeth, but have strong, sharp cutting
   incisors with which they make punctured wounds from which they suck the
   blood of horses, cattle, and other animals, as well as man, chiefly
   during sleep. They have a caecal appendage to the stomach, in which the
   blood with which they gorge themselves is stored.