I was wondering if Colonies count for a race being in the system? Ynar has "ships" in a dozen systems according to the stats page, although I've seen nothing of him in one except his colonies. The turns always take a long time so I'm beggining to wonder if he isnt actuallly there or if he's just not takeing many turns.

Colonies don't, but if they just left the system, then the server may have them in as ghosts for a little while - thats on the web page.

The game client does show the correct info - ie right click when inside the system and it tells you the number of races in-system.

Or click on the system in the galmap.

Jonathan