Paul Beuk wrote:
A kind of. The maculata group has not been properly revised and there is no reliable key. I have drafted my own but I often find it wanting, possibly because characters traditionally used are colour characters: clouding in the wings (which perhaps even may be variable), colour of antennal segments (not easily seen in the above images), colour of the venter (perhaps obscured by dusting?), colour of the proboscis (if that is valid, then there appear to be males of two species above, one with yellow and one with dark proboscis, but you can understand the problem if you now tell me that the above males are actually the same specimen). Anyone willing to dump a lot of material of the Empis maculata group in my lap to sort the mess out is welcome.