is ongoing to breed bees that are resistant to the mites, while retaining useful traits such as gentleness and honey productivity

They may look like transparent creatures from another world, but young bees, recorded for a new short film, have been shown are battling alien invaders of their own.

Video footage inside a hive reveals bee larvae turning into pupae while blood-sucking parasitic mites run over them. The parasites are the largest threat to bee populations, which are desperately needed to pollinate crops.

Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his garden in Berkeley, California, to capture the first 21 days of their lives and highlight the mite problem.

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You won't bee-lieve it! Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his garden in Berkeley California to capture the first 21 days of their lives and highlight the problem of blood-sucking mites depleting hive populations as well as what's being done to solve it. Here, a varroa destructa mite can be seen on a pupa

For the project, commissioned by National Geographic, he used specialised equipment to film the bees inside their hive to produce a high-speed video documenting their growth.

In a Ted talk, he explained that bees pollinate one third of food crops but have been 'having a hard time' because of pesticides, diseases and habitat loss.

'But single biggest threat is a parasite from Asia - varroa destructa,' he said.

A hive of activity: The 60-second video shows bee eggs hatching into wriggling larvae. 'Newly hatched larva swim around their cells feeding on white goo that nurse bees secrete for them,' (pictured) Mr Varma said

On a hiving to nothing? Bee populations are being adversely hit by pesticides, diseases and habitat loss, but single biggest threat is a parasite from Asia - varroa destructa (a close-up of the mite is shown)

BEES MAY BE HAPPIER IN CITIES Research published last month suggests bees are happier near towns and cities. A study of wildlife sites across four English counties has found that most are home to fewer species of bee today than they were in the past. It found that the expansion of farmland has actually been more damaging to Britain's bee population than the concreting over of the countryside for housing. For instance, heaths and meadows near Milton Keynes now boast more species of bee than sites in more rural areas. Reading University researcher Dr Deepa Senapathi believes intensive agriculture is to blame. While the gardens, parks and churchyards of towns and cities provide bees with a variety of plants to forage on and an extended flowering season, popular crops such as oilseed rape only bloom for a few weeks. She said: 'While concreting over the countryside may appear to be bad news for nature, we've found that progressive urbanisation may be much less damaging than intensive agriculture. 'Urban areas may benefit bees more than farmland by providing a wide variety of flowering plants, providing a cosmopolitan menu for insects from spring through to autumn.' Advertisement

The pinhead-sized mite crawls onto young bees and sucks their blood.

The mites eventually destroy whole hives because they make the bees more vulnerable to stress and disease.

Bees are at their most sensitive when developing in root cells, Mr Varma explained.

His 60-second video shows bee eggs hatching into larvae, which are wriggling and transparent.

'Newly hatched larva swim around their cells feeding on white goo that nurse bees secrete for them,' he said.

'Then their heads and legs slowly differentiate as they transform into pupae.'

At this point in the video it's possible to see mites running over the pupae in their cells.

It also shows in astonishing detail how tissue in the body reorganises and pigment slow develops in the creature's eyes.

'The last process is their skin shrivels up and they sprout hair,' Mr Varma said.

In order to stop mites getting the run of hives, beekeepers typically treat their wooden huts with chemicals, which is bad news in the long run.

Scientists are trying to come up with alternative treatments at the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland.

They discovered that some bees are naturally more prone to mites than others and have successfully bred a line of mite-resistant mites, by artificially inseminating a queen bee.

Helping nature: The mites (seen here on a bee) eventually destroy whole hives because they make the bees more vulnerable to stress and disease. Research is under way to breed bees that are more resistant to the parasite as well as being helpful to humans - retaining gentle traits and the ability to make homey

However, they noticed that while the genetically engineered bees were less likely to fall prey to the parasite, they also lost helpful traits such as gentleness and the ability to store honey.

Experts are now working with beekeepers, including the largest beekeeping operation in the world, to integrate their GM bees so they can one day select bees that are resistant to mites and the most useful to humans.

Almost done: The video shows in astonishing detail how tissue in the body reorganises and pigment slow develops in the creature's eyes. The last process is their skin shrivels up and they sprout hair (pictured)

In order to stop mites getting the run of hives, beekeepers typically treat their wooden huts with chemicals, which is bad news in the long run. A stock image of hives in Valensole, France, is shown