This species most certainly belongs to the genus Gymnopternus, a sister genus of Dolichopus, with only a distant phylogenetic relationship with Hercostomus (see Brooks, 2005). Before 2004, Gymnopternus species were assigned to Hercostomus by most European and Russian dipterologists. Pollet (2004) reinstated the generic level of Gymnopternus again as it has always been treated by American Diptera workers.