After entering the host root, usually at the growing point, the larvae become sedentary and sausage shaped. Fully mature females can be seen as tiny white embedded objects along the host's roots . When the males are fully developed they migrate back into the soil . The free roaming males fertilize the embedded females. After copulation the males die.
Fertilized females begin to swell as the eggs develop within their bodies.
When the females die their body wall gradually hardens and darkens to form a protective layer around the eggs - the cyst. Females of G. pallida do not pass through the golden phase but remains white to cream colour until gradually darkening. A new cyst may contain as many as 500 eggs and persist in the soil for more than 20 years. There is a reduction in the number of viable eggs within a cyst over time. Host plant symptoms are not a reliable means of identification since symptoms of attack by Globodera species are not specific.