NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Hairy-legged Vampire Bat
Diphylla ecaudata Spix, 1823
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata) is one of three extant species of vampire bats. It mainly feeds on the blood of wild birds, but can also feed both on domestic birds and humans. This vampire bat lives mainly in tropical and subtropical forestlands of South America, Central America, and southern Mexico. It is the sole member of the genus Diphylla.
Wikipedia contributors, Hairy-legged vampire bat; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:46:48.344744+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Diphylla ecaudata Spix, 1823
- Name authority
- Spix, 1823
- Common name
- Hairy-legged Vampire Bat
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Family
- Phyllostomidae
- Genus
- Diphylla
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderChiroptera Blumenbach, 1779
- suborderYangochiroptera Koopman, 1984
- superfamilyNoctilionoidea Gray, 1821
- familyPhyllostomidae Gray, 1825
- subfamilyDesmodontinae Wagner, 1840
- tribeDiphyllini Baker, Solari, Cirranello & Simmons, 2016
- genusDiphylla Spix, 1823
- speciesDiphylla ecaudata Spix, 1823
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
North America
South America
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=180064 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:36G4Q. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.