Root Maggot Fly from the UK

Subject: London Fly
Location: London
February 14, 2013 4:11 am
When I first saw this fly I thought it was just a somehow pretty and interesting version of the common fly (bottle/blow all the same to me then).
But, ever since I’ve developed a fascination with how much more intriguing flies are than I had thought, so now I’ve jumped from a Spider fan to a more general bug fan.
This bold fly who allowed me so close to take the picture (I just imagined it was too tired to care but now I know distinct flies have personality traits), was sitting on a railing for the Thames River near the beginning of time (Greenwich) on the opening day of the Olympics (making it August 27, 2012).
Because of this fly’s consent as a model not only have I become much more invested in the flying life, but several of my friends who have seen it have expressed new found tolerance as they didn’t realize how pretty a fly can be.
Oh, but that was before we picked up several as passengers in a car traversing 3 countries… those pics soon.
Anyway, it was what I would call standard, common fly size though it appears there is nothing common anymore about flies. In my mind before there was the Standard and the Jumbo (bumbling ones). 🙂
Hope you can help me decide which family of flies it might be in.
Thanks!
Signature: Curious Girl

Dear Curious Girl,
We scoured several websites including UK Nature,  True Flies UK Safari, A Nature Observer’s Scrapbook, UK Diptera and Amateur Entomologists’ Society with no luck.  Perhaps one of our readers will have better luck with this distinctive looking fly.

Eric Eaton provides an identification:  Root Maggot Fly
Sure, that is the family Anthomyiidae (Root-maggot flies).  Might be Anthomyia puella, and a female (using my Domino Guide to Insects of Britain and Western Europe).
Eric