Bumble Bees, Butterflies & Hover Flies

The only butterflies I've seen this year have been Cabbage Whites. Bumble Bees? yes a couple fluttering round the Sweet Pea flowers and the Honeysuckle vines.

Hover Flies none at all except for an unfortunate one I found dead in the car.

I think of the Epistrophe species

Not too sure but I am waiting for identification from the Hover Fly Group on Flickr

One taken upside down because of legs.

As the fly was only 15mm long I hesitated to try to open the legs or to turn the wing to balance and give a full picture of the 'carcase'.
Now I am hopefully waiting to see if I get a reply from the Hoverfly Group to positively track it down.

There were not very many last year because of the stack of workshop items in front of the border. That also killed off a section of the Cotoneaster and prevented it from flowering. It was maybe one of the reasons there weren't many insect visitors.

Hopefully next year will see a return of honey bees and the rest to sup - or should I have put suck - on the flowers.
Bees even turned up before the flowers opened and inserted their probes down into to the buds to have a feed.