stage, growth will stop until a vertebrate eats the intermediate host, and then the strobila develops. Adult tapeworms often have a high final host specificity, with some species only found in one host vertebrate. Common infective species Medical importance Taeniasis Taeniasis is an infection within the intestines by adult tapeworms belonging to the genus Taenia. It is due to eating contaminated undercooked beef or pork. There are generally no or only mild symptoms. Symptoms may occasionally include weight loss or abdominal pain. Segments of tapeworm may be seen in the stool. Cysticercosis Cysticercosis is a tissue infection caused by the young form of the pork tapeworm. Infection occurs through swallowing or antiperistaltic contractions during regurgitation carrying eggs or gravid proglottids to the stomach. At this point, larvae hatch when exposed to enzymes and penetrate the intestinal wall, travelling through the body through blood vessels to tissues like the brain, the eye, muscles, and the nervous system (called neurocysticercosis). At these sites, the parasites lodge and form cysts, a condition called cysticercosis, producing inflammatory reactions and clinical issues when they die, sometimes causing serious or fatal damage. In the eye, the parasites can cause visual loss, and infection of the spine and adjacent leptomeninges can cause paresthesias, pain, or paralysis. Echinococcosis (hydatid disease) Humans become accidental hosts to worms of the genus Echinococcus, playing no role in the worm's biological cycle. This can result in echinococcosis, also called hydatid disease. Humans (usually children) become infected by direct contact with dogs and eating food contaminated with dog feces. Common sites of infection are the liver, the lungs, muscles, bones, kidneys, and the spleen. Eggs hatch in the gastrointestinal tract after the consumption of contaminated food, after which the larvae travel to the liver through portal circulation. Here, the larvae are trapped and usually develop into hydatid cysts. While the liver is the first filter for trapping them, the lungs act as the second filter site, trapping most of the larvae that are not trapped by the liver. Some larvae escape from the lungs to cause cysts in other tissues. When a larva becomes established in tissue, it develops into a "bladderworm" or "hydatid" and can cause various cancer-like cysts that may rupture and interact with nearby organs. Most cases are asymptomatic, and the mortality rate is low, but various complications from these interactions may lead to debilitating illness. Hymenolepiasis Arthropods are intermediate