Polietes meridionalis

I made a bit of a meal of identifying this, thanks entirely to incorrectly keying it to Anthomyiidae. There must have been some moisture on the fly when I potted it and by the time I came to examine it the wings were quite bedraggled making it difficult to determine precise details of the venation. However I was sure vein 6 reached the margin on both wings which should have made it Anthomyiidae not Muscidae. I was never convinced it was Anthomyiidae but spent a long time attempting to key it as such before eventually arriving at a conclusion that just didn't seem right. It was a common enough species but photos online didn't look like my fly (notably the wing venation differed). The ObsIdentify app thought it was a Polietes sp. (a muscid) so I tried Mike Hackston's Muscidae keys and sure enough it keyed pretty easily to Polietes meridionalis. I can only assume that the damage to the wings prevented me from being able to see vein 6 stopping short of the margin.

Polietes meridionalis showing squamae, anterior spiracle, postegenal hairs and face, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 18th November 2022