It has slightly bigger eggs and proglottids than H. nana and infects mammals using insects as intermediate hosts.

As shown in the CDC life cycle, oncospheres hatch and then penetrate the intestinal wall.

As the definitive host (rats) eats an infected arthropod, cysticercoids present in the body cavity transform into the adult worm.

[8] Hymenolepis diminuta infection in humans is rare, typically occurring in isolated cases.

As such, several studies of H. diminuta exist as case reports describing a single affected individual.

In rural Devghar, India, a place heavily infested with rodents and cockroaches, H. diminuta eggs were found in a 12-year-old girl living in a small village.

However, in this instance, investigators found no evidence of rodent or other possible sources of infection in the places habitually occupied by the affected boy.

However, abdominal pain, irritability, itching, and eosinophilia are among the existing symptoms in a few of the reported cases.