A Cautionary Tale of Dicranopalpus

I've spent the last few months looking for Dicranopalpus caudatus in VC55 (Leicestershire & Rutland).  I figured it had to be here, it was just that no-one had looked, instead recording specimens as Dicranopalpus ramosus agg.  Yesterday in a scruffy piece of plantation I found numerous male Dicranopalpus lacking the typical dark Zorro eye mask.  Aha, I thought, but of course they had to be checked. 

The first one I checked turned out to be Dicranopalpus caudatus, as expected (first record for VC55):

So I thought I'd check another one:

No eye mask, but this one is Dicranopalpus ramosus:

So, as suspected, the male Zorro mask is not a reliable character - and they all need checking! These observations also bring into question the possibility of hybridization between these two "species".