Krillion Recorded answers
81 recorded answers
How to approach it
Start by listing the obvious everyday biters, then deliberately move away from them, because the scoring rewards obscurity rather than familiarity. Once you have a handful of common species, push sideways: ask which parasites live on a particular host, in a particular nest, or inside a particular organ, and which of those are obligate blood feeders rather than occasional ones. Naming conventions help, since many of these creatures are labelled after their host or the tissue they attack. Check each candidate against the wording of the question: it must take blood as food, not merely live on or in an animal. Finally, prefer precise species or genus names over loose household words, and keep several candidates ready.
Get a hint
The habit turns up in a surprisingly wide range of groups, from soft-bodied parasites to hard-shelled aquatic forms, winged insects, eight-legged arachnids and a few backboned species.
A little more
Many of the strongest answers are not the famous biters but obscure parasites named after the host they live on or the part of the body they occupy.
One step further
Look for creatures whose entire life cycle depends on a blood meal, especially ones tied to a single host species, a nest, a burrow or a body cavity rather than a free-living hunter.
Reveal answers 81
- Swallow bugDeep Cut85points
- Sycorax moth flyDeep Cut85points
- Tongue wormDeep Cut85points
- Tongue-eating louseDeep Cut85points
- Tracheal miteDeep Cut85points
- Tristan thrushDeep Cut85points
- Tropical fowl miteDeep Cut85points
- Tropical rat miteDeep Cut85points
- Vampire beetleDeep Cut85points
- Vampire snailDeep Cut85points
- Vampire waspDeep Cut85points
- Varroa miteDeep Cut85points
- Water miteDeep Cut85points
- Biting midgeRare60points
- Black flyRare60points
- Deer flyRare60points
- HeartwormRare60points
- HookwormRare60points
- HorseflyRare60points
- LampreyRare60points
- OxpeckerRare60points
- Sand flyRare60points
- Tsetse flyRare60points
- Vampire finchRare60points
- Bed bugSchooler30points
- LouseSchooler30points
- Vampire batSchooler30points
- FleaPlankton10points
- LeechPlankton10points
- MosquitoPlankton10points
- TickPlankton10points
Why these answers count
Scoring here tracks how hard an answer is to think of, not how impressive it sounds. The two 100-point entries, Cooper's nutmeg snail and Vampire moth, are genuinely obscure, and most players would never reach them; the fifty-seven answers on 85 points form the same profile in slightly milder form, a long tail of specialised parasites such as Aega psora, Anchor worm or Tongue-eating louse, each tied to one host or one habitat and therefore rarely volunteered. The single 60-point answer, Biting midge, is the giveaway: it is a real blood feeder, but it sits close enough to everyday knowledge that plenty of people can produce it, so the site pays less. Familiar groups generally land at the bottom of the range, while anything that requires a second or third step of reasoning, such as naming the parasite of a particular host, tends to climb. The practical conclusion: the more specialised and the less conversational the name, the more points it earns.