Hoverflies laying

I posted on hoverfly larvae feeding on aphids a few days ago, but I was able to photograph several species laying eggs and thought that deserved a post on itself. My mock orange (Philadephus) has dense aggregations of black aphids and several hoverflies have been laying eggs on the buds and leaves on Philadelphus and Pyracantha. On the top photo Eupeodes luniger. Her swollen abdomen curling to deposit an egg on a bud. She patiently moved from a clump of buds to another, spreading her eggs in the whole bush. The carnivorous, aphid loving larvae that will hatch from these eggs will contribute to keeping the aphid numbers on check.

Syrphus

Epistrophe eligans

And to end the post, just to say that this is a special post for BugBlog: Number 100. I am quite happy to have taken on blogging, and it has been a lot of fun researching the posts. I hope I can mark many more returns for BugBlog in the future.