Adult males and females live in the intestine of rodents and a few other mammals. Females release embryonated eggs which pass in the host's feces. The intermediate host is a cockroach. After the egg is eaten an acanthor emerges and uses its hooks to penetrate into the body cavity of the cockroach. Over the next 2-3 months the parasite develops slowly, first into an acanthella and finally into a cystacanth.
Once the cystacanth has formed, the parasite is infective to another definitive host. At this time, the parasite induces some behavioral alterations in the intermediate host that render it more susceptible to predation. These behavioral alterations are quite common among acanthocephalan infections. In this case, it involves a slight delay in the cockroach's normal escape response.