Some Nomada notes – these bees are clepto-parasites of a variety of other solitary bees (mainly but not exclusively Andrena species).
Looking at my photographs there are at least three species, a larger one with a red thorax and some red in the mainly yellow abdomen pattern that is the Flavous Nomad Bee, Nomada flava, and the other two have no red in the patterning, one has legs that are basically yellow with a little black on the hind fibia which is N.succincta (the aptly commonly named Yellow-legged Nomad Bee) and the other with mainly orange legs looks highly likely to be Gooden’s Nomad Bee (N.goodeniana).
Another cuckoo species spotted is Melecta albifrons which has a very black and white appearance (and black and white legs). Its host is Anthopora plumipes and it was photographed on the wall close to the big colony mentioned in the text.
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