I watched this hoverfly carefully checking and then laying an egg on the underside of a rhododendron leaf the other day. Then got a couple of shots after of it feeding on some sugar/honey syrup I’d painted on to some nearby camelia leaves before going back for some shots of the egg.
I think it’s Syrphus torvus (the only Syrphus sp in the UK with hairy eyes).
I assume the egg is supposed to overwinter like that now.
Brian V.
