Caenorhabditis is a genus of nematodes which live in bacteria-rich environments like compost piles, decaying dead animals and rotting fruit. The name comes from Greek: caeno- (καινός (caenos) = new, recent); rhabditis = rod-like (ῥάβδος (rhabdos) = rod, wand). In 1900, Maupas initially named the species Rhabditis elegans, Osche placed it in the subgenus Caenorhabditis in 1952, and in 1955, Dougherty raised Caenorhabditis to the status of genus. C. elegans is the type species of the genus.