Ephippiger diurnus Dufour, 1841

Habitat:
Ephippiger diurnus inhabits dry and warm habitats like scrub, grove-rich meadows, pastures and fallow land, bushy rocky slopes, edges, woodland clearings, very open dry woodlands and similar places with good vertical structure. Most favourable are mosaics of shrubs, edges, forbs and also low-growing spots with partly open soil.

Endangerment factors:
At the periphery (in the northwest: e.g. W-Germany, W-Switzerland) Ephippiger diurnus is heavily endangered by intensification (e.g. for vineyards), overbuilding and on the other hand by bush encroachment and reforestation after abandonment. In the South it is still quite common up to 2000m.

Remarks:
Ephippiger diurnus occurs from N-Spain across France to W-Germany (west of the Rhine) and to S-Netherlands. The eastern populations are nowadays considered a separate species E. ephippiger (E-Austria, Balkans etc.). It would also be appropriate to consider both taxa as conspecific and apply subspecies status.