Hive-lapse: how honeybees morph from larvae to adults

In this 2015 video, we witness the transformation of honeybee larvae to pupae to adults, thanks to a stunning time-lapse captured by photographer Anand Varma.

Varma created the video as part of an assignment for National Geographic, having struck up a friendship with Alice Rosenthal, a local beekeeper in his hometown of Berkeley, California.

Rosenthal had a hive vulnerable to winter’s lower temperatures, so she proposed moving it into a shed in Varma’s backyard. The hive would stay warmer, while Varma would be able to photograph the bees inside.

But even with this kind of access, there was still a stage in the insect’s maturation journey that Varma couldn’t see – the full development of an egg into an adult worker bee.

“I couldn’t really photograph one bee for the whole 21 days of its life cycle, so I broke it up and I tried to capture each transformation that happens,” he said.

Thankfully, after dozens of attempts over six months, Varma managed to capture enough usable footage to compile the time-lapse we see here.

Read about the project in greater detail here.

View the original video here.

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