Proxy Vampire: Spider eats blood by catching mosquitoes

An extensive battery of arachnid-food tests has shown for the first time that a spider can have a special taste for vertebrate blood, say researchers.

BLOOD SEEKER. A small jumping spider prefers to stalk and pounce on blood-engorged mosquitoes. Jackson

The jumping spider of East Africa doesn’t have the mouthparts to get vertebrate blood directly, says Ximena J.