Figure 1. The life cycle of C. elegans.

In an environment of plentiful food and low dauer pheromone, C. elegans molts through four larval stages followed by the reproductive adult. Under conditions of low levels of food and high levels of pheromone (signaling population density) during L1 they will enter into a developmentally arrested dauer stage. Following a return to favorable environmental conditions, they will recover from dauer and resume development into a reproductive adult.