The more common sexual form of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, in which the gonad generates both male and female gametes. The hermaphrodite is self-fertile, since its gametes can be brought together internally to create healthy progeny. These animals can also participate in sexual unions with male animals to create cross-progeny by internal fertilization of the hermaphrodite’s female gamete, or oocyte, with the male’s sperm. See Automictic See Gonochoristic