MORPHOLOGY: Strobila small to medium in size; segments numerous; gravid proglottids longer than wide. Scolex with four unarmed suckers and a rostellum armed with several rows of hooks. Rostellar pouch absent. Hooks usually thorn-shaped, occasionally taenioid (Diplopylidium). Genital organs duplicated in each proglottid. Testes numerous, in intervascular space, extending to anterior margin of segment or not. Vas deferens coiled, voluminous. Seminal vesicles absent. Cirrus-sac usually reaches or crosses osmoregulatory canals. Vagina usually opens posteriorly to cirrus-sac but can also cross cirrus-sac to open anterior to it. Small seminal receptacle present at level of ovary. Ovaries lobulate, distinctly bi-alate or not. Uterus not persistent, replaced in gravid proglottids by thin-walled egg-capsules containing one or more eggs. Paruterine organ absent.

DIVERSITY: Three valid genera; about 15 valid species.

PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS: Cladistic analysis indicates that the Dipylidiidae is distinct from the Dilepididae and is a sister group to a polytomy linking davaineid and dilepidid subclades.

DEFINITIVE HOSTS: Carnivorous mammals.

SITE IN DEFINITIVE HOST: Intestine.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Cosmopolitan.

LIFE-CYCLES: Two-host life-cycle. First intermediate hosts are arthropods. Paratenic hosts often participate. Larval stages in reptiles (Joyeuxiella, Diplopylidium) or fleas (Dipylidium).

Selected References:

Matevosyan, E. M. 1963. [Dilepidoidea, tapeworms of domestic and wild animals.] Osnovy Tsestodologii 3: 687. [In Russian.] PDF

Jones, A. 1993. A revision of the cestode genus Joyeuxiella Fuhrmann, 1935 (Dilepididae: Dipylidiinae). Systematic Parasitology 5: 203-213. PDF

Jones, A. 1994. Family Dipylidiidae Stiles, 1896. pp. 555-558. In Khalil, L. F., Jones, A., Bray, R. A. (Eds.) Keys to the cestode parasites of vertebrates. CAB International, Wallingford, U.K. PDF

Hoberg, E. P., A. Jones, and R. A. Bray. 1999. Phylogenetic analysis among the families of the Cyclophyllidea (Eucestoda) based on comparative morphology, with new hypotheses for co-evolution in vertebrates. Systematic Parasitology 42: 51-73. PDF