Venus Pool - Early Colletes Orgy time!

I never turn down the prospect of an interesting insects or two and todays adventure was to venture amongst literally 10's of 1,000s of Early Colletes mining bee (Colletes cunicularius) at Venus Pool...

Here's a male which made up most of the numbers...

Plus a sought after female, noticeably larger and quite easy to pick out amongst the smaller males. Problem is, once detected, the hordes of males pounce!!

Here's a party just getting started...

Bee upon bee until the mating cluster reaches a 'climax' :-) She is somewhere in the heart of the scrum of the scrum!

There was also a couple of gatecrashers... probable Common Furrow Bee (Lasioglossum calceatum or albipes?) minding his own business...

And this male Andrena species possibly A. subopaca)

I tried my hand with a short video which captures but doesn't quite convey the amazing scene we witnessed!

Many thanks to insect guru Nigel Jones for his help with the IDs!!