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Can anyone tell me what the current status of the two species Dioctria hyalipennis and D. baumhaueri is nowadays? Some sources show them as synonyms while others treat them as separate species. British forums (mainly, but also others) happily give records of Dioctria baumhaueri next to records of D. hyalipennis, while in others D. baumhaueri does not seem to exist.

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Fauna europaea geeft de soort baumhaueri niet aan. Ik meende dat het het een varieteit van hyalipennis was. Van alle Dioctria's is het misschien wel de meest variabele soort.

Translation added by Paul Beuk:
Fauna europaea does not list baumhaueri. I thought it was a variety of hyalipennis. Of all Dioctria it is perhaps the most variable.

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Well, that's one of the problems in some families in Fauna Europaea, the lack of synonyms listed so that the status of some names is unclear.

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Paul,

Fritz Geller-Grimm, in his current on-line catalog of World Asilidae <http://www.geller...pecies.htm>, lists Dioctria baumhaueri Meigen (1820) as a junior synonym of Dioctria hyalipennis (Fabricius, 1794).

Regrds,

Eric

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That's probably also why it is not as a valid species on Fauna Europaea, but the Brits still record it. ;) See for example: http://www.dipter...cies..html.

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More info: the first formal synonomy I can find re. Dioctria hyalipennis/ baumhaueri is Lehr 2001 (transl.: Ent. Rev. 81:59-70). In this article, Lehr mentions that Peus (1954) first suggested that these two species were the same.

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First, I agree that the Fauna Europea isn't a scientific work and there is a great need to use other publications.

Yes, there are some differences between the British Island and Continental Europe. Usally I'm really not so interested in creating synonyms, because we have a very high diversity and low knowledge on it. In the case of D. hyalipennis and D. baumhaueri it is necessary to check material from different parts of Europe. There is a high variation and I agree with other authors to synonymize D. baumhaueri.
If somebody else is really interested in separating, it is a must to repeat this work.

In other cases, like the Choerades marginata / femorata - group it seems to be that we have similar problems - but different results. People, like Malcolm Smart, are working on it.

We should have a look on the complete population of a species, but this isn't possible. Sometimes we find good evidence for separating, in other not.

Yours

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http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/insects-and-invertebrates/107357-sawfly.html