Figure 5: Lateral left views (anterior to left) of female gonad (red overlay) development in Steinernema carpocapsae at various time points. The gonad of newly hatched S. carpocapsae (A) contained four nuclei with two central larger nuclei and two smaller cap nuclei. By 25 HET (B), the number of nuclei in the gonad noticeably increased and began elongating along the ventral body wall. At 33 HET (C), the gonad extended toward the dorsal surface. Between 44 HET (D) and 54 HET (E), we observed an expansion of the gonad along the dorsal surface. Note that the anterior arm typically wraps around the right side of the intestine and is out of frame at this focal plane, whereas the posterior arm wraps around the left side. Scale bar, 50 µm.