Length 4-5mm.  A green-eyed fly with a mainly grey body and pale yellow legs. A series of black dots on the thorax help to identify this fly, including a pair on the scutellum.

Good quality photographs required.

It has quite a wide range of host plants including Musk Thistle, Knapweed and Safflower.

May to October, but peak time is probably July to late August.

Acanthiophilus helianthi seems to be an uncommon fly and has been recorded from scattered localities, mainly in southern England, but more recently has been recorded in Sutherland in the far north of Scotland.

Rarely recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland.