Desmodus is a genus of bats which—along with the genera Diaemus and Diphylla—are allied as the subfamily Desmodontinae, the carnivorous, blood-consuming vampire bats of the New World leaf-nosed bat family Phyllostomidae.[1]
The genus was erected in 1826 to accommodate a new species Desmodus rufus described by Maximilian Wied in the second volume of his work detailing his explorations in Brazil.[2][1] The type species was previously described with the name Phyllostoma rotundus by Étienne Geoffroy in 1810.[1]
^Morgan, G. S.; Linares, O. J.; Ray, C. E. (1988). "New species of fossil vampire bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Desmodontidae) from Florida and Venezuela". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 101 (4): 912–928.