Fig. 1

Overview. a Dauer exit is a developmental decision to resume reproductive development, which takes more than 12 h, highlighting the need for long-term behavioral imaging. b Overview of the assay used in this study. Dauer larvae are transferred to a new environment (i.e., a fresh plate) and their change in behavior is recorded across several hours. Time resolved measurements will be relative to the time point when worms were transferred to the new environment (hours after transfer or h.a.t.). c Sketch of the open hardware; a 3D printed solution for acquiring timelapse videos through the eyepiece of a stereoscope. Camera and acquisition parameters are controlled by a Raspberry Pi, which streams the data to a workstation for data processing. d Summary of the software, which integrates KNIME and the TrackMate framework. By integrating data from thousands of tracks and worm postures, users can build robust, quantitative models of C. elegans behavior