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Today I received a very similar specimen from Crete, and this one keys straight out to Laphria hecate. In the original description of empyrea (which is rather short) one can read that the mystax is golden yellow. It also states that the species is very similar to L. flava. The description of Engel himself (he doubts if he has the right species in front of him) is more yellow in chaetotaxy. Did you also consider L. hecate? You can see the type of empyrea here: http://eos.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/result?Family=Asilidae&Genus=Laphria&Subgenus=&Species=ephippium&InfraspecificEpithet=&AuthorYear=&DrawerCode=

Right top. Type of L. hecate is there too, but hard to see anything because the wings are closed on the abdomen.