[2] [3] This species of tape worm is much less frequently encountered than Dipylidium caninum, which has fleas as its intermediate host rather than rodents but exhibits most of the same physical characteristics and is treated with the same medications (i.e., antihelminthics).

The eggs of the tapeworm are shed by the definitive host in the feces, and these are then consumed by rodents where they pass through several stages of development and cause various forms of damage, eventually coming to reside primarily in the liver and abdominal cavity where each scolex will create a fluid-filled cyst.

The definitive host must ingest the strobilocercus stage of the tapeworm in order to acquire the parasite and complete the lifecycle.

The strobilocercus is a larval stage that has a terminal bladder and a rather long segmented body that is in crowned with the scolex that looks very similar to that found on the adult form.

Spontaneous worm destrobilization (the shedding of the entire portion of the body located behind the scolex and containing all of the strobila) may occur without any change in actual infection.