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According to Dutch texts in holland is only E. punctipennis. In the catalogue of F. Geller Grimm only E. barbatus is mentioned and also does Danny Wolff's website. Fauna Europaea mentions both. And says that E. barbatus does not occur in Holland or Belgium. Does E. punctipennis not occur in Germany (it does according to FE) or is it a synonym to E. barbatus?

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As far as I can tell:
The Dutch list once had Erax punctatus. Later reserach showed that the correct name should have been Erax punctipennis. Other research showed that Erax punctatus was a junior synonym of Erax barbatus. So I think the correct name for the Dutch species is E. punctipennis and that records for the Netherlands of E. barbatus are based on the (incorrect) older records of E. punctatus. I do not know about other countries but I assume that some countries will have both species, barbatus and punctipennis.

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Thanks Paul! E. punctatus seems indeed no longer to be valid according FE. But also, both E. barbatus Scopoli and E. punctipennis (Meigen) are valid although (probably) synonym!

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Sorry, very late answer:

There is - so far as we know - only one Erax species in Germany. (compare: http://www.asilidae.de/modules/general_comments/speckonz.htm). It should be the same as the dutch species. Using Weinberg & Bächli (1995) German specimens run to Erax punctipennis, according to the genitalia, but we are so far not convinced that the characters used in this key are defined well enough.
The drawings of the male genitalia in lateral view are of bad quality and in the case of "barbatus" it does not fit very well with the corresponding drawing in dorsal view.
The length of the ovipositor in relation to the three last segments is no good character, too, because the length of these segments depends on various factors, both in living and in collection specimens.
Further investigations are necessary. We use the name "barbatus" just because of traditional reasons as long as the problem is not solved in a satisfying way.

Greetings, Danny

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Thank you Danny.

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Hope you wil read this. One of the pictures on your site is remarkable. The (top)male seems to be very dark. Beard almost entirely black as are the femora of leg 1. Recognisable as Erax but different somehow. Gabi made two pictures are they the same creature? The ones in my collection from Belgium seem much lighter in colour.