L4 grinder degradation begins rapidly after feeding cessation, coincident with the appearance of abundant dense core vesicles.

(A) Active L4.7 and (B) five min post-PC. (i) TEM of the terminal bulb lumen, L4 pharyngeal grinder, pharynx muscle cell 6 (pm6,) and part of pharynx muscle cell 7 (pm7). (ii) Pseudocoloring, light brown denotes the terminal bulb lumen, yellow denotes the L4 pharyngeal grinder, pink denotes pm6, purple denotes pm6 papillae, red denotes the bottom boundary of L4 pharyngeal grinder, and navy denotes pm7. (iii) Cartoon using the color scheme used in (ii) with the addition of orange denoting plasma membranes. In the L4.7 terminal bulb, vesicular activity is evident in both pm6 and pm7, though there are more vesicles in the 5 min post-PC pm6 and pm7 cells. Anterior is up. Scale bar = 1 μm.