Little male Osmia just emerged from his coccoon.

This poor Osmia is absolutely loaded with mites. I wonder if this bee will survive with so many freeloaders?

In my exploration of the life cycle of bees, I became intrigued by the process of metamorphosis that bees go through within their little cells. The period when the larva spins a silk coccoon around itself and undergoes this amazing transformation is wonderous.  Here’s a short animation inspired by this magical process. The text in the video are fragments taken from the beautiful poetry of Carol Ann Duffy.