Successful penetration was observed to occur through the cuticle between the abdominal segments, and through the cuticle of the gills, where it is particularly thin. The larvae grow slowly and reach a size of several mm after several months, when they are infective to turtles. Infective stages were found almost exclusively in the muscles of the posterior part of the abdomen, suggesting that larvae migrate there or that only larvae that invade this part of the body survive. Turtles become infected when they eat infected crayfish. Life cycles of other species Adult Amphilina foliacea live in the body cavity of European sturgeon, Acipenser .
Eggs escape through the coelomic pore which connects the body cavity to the outside.
Eggs containing infective larvae are ingested by freshwater amphipods. Chewing movements of the mouth parts of the crustaceans break the egg shell and enable the larvae to escape and penetrate into the host. Sturgeon become infected by eating infected amphipods. Adult Nesolecithus africanus live in African freshwater fish. Intermediate hosts of all three species of amphilinids examined are crustaceans.