What kind of hoverflies are these?

Just in the past couple of days I have noticed some hoverflies actually showing interest in my Erigeron karvinskianus, and they are smaller hoverflies than the Marmalade hoverflies that I have so far noticed this year, which didn't seem to settle on flowers to take nectar.

I also found what look like very small white eggs along a nasturtium stem and on their leaves, and have seen hoverflies settling on leaves for a while, possibly laying eggs. I have no idea what hoverfly eggs look like, though I did google it and am trying to learn to identify them as I don't want to accidentally disturb them.

Are these just smaller Marmalade hoverflies, or a different type?

 

Compare with this Marmalade hoverfly, photograph taken on 6th June. These are what I have been seeing so far this year until a couple of days ago.

 

@groundbeetle with nearly 300 species in the UK it's a tad difficult; perhaps a scroll through this rogues gallery might help you spot the "culprit".
Forgot this link Hoverflies | NatureSpot apologies.

 

I think Thick-legged Hoverflies (Syritta pipiens) @groundbeetle, but it's very hard to tell even after downloading your images and zooming in on them, you need to get much better photos in future for a definite ID!

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ss...i512j46i512.5275j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Nick

 

Thanks, I am sure it is the Thick-legged Hoverflies, Syritta pipiens. Your link has some wonderful Flickr photographs of it, which even distinguish between male and female. It has that very distinctive swollen femur, which looks like something I have seen on bumblebees.

I will search Flickr for photographs of Hoverfly eggs. I had googled but the photographs I found weren't as helpful for identification as I need. I have found on the undersides of some leaves what look like spherical, cemented-on white eggs of some kind, could be anything and I had thought spiders'. And some white things along nasturtium stems which were only visible in a photograph, maybe very tiny or I wasn't looking properly.

Hoverflies are very important for keeping down aphids, and the different kinds of hoverflies seem to prefer different flowers and appear at different times in the year. I suspect that the very recent opening of my Feverfew flowers, within the past few days in one part of the garden and about three weeks ago in the other area, has a lot to do with the sudden appearance of Syritta pipiens and possibly ladybird larvae too.

I need to learn to take better photographs of these tiny creatures. I will look further on Flickr and try to learn what their photographers are using.