Host plants:
The larvae feed on Peucedanum officinale (Apiaceae).
Habitat:
Gortyna borelii inhabits stands of Peucedanum officinale. These are located in dry and warm edges like steppe slopes, fallow land originating from abandoned vineyards, embankments or woodland margins, but also in temporary dry, in spring wet floodplain meadows, flood dams or similar places.
Life cycle:
The egg hibernates usually hidden in rows on dry plants. The larvae develop up to late July or August, at first in the stems, later on (usually from June) in the rootstock. Infested plants are revealed by borehole cuts on soil niveau. The moths appear in September (often not until mid-September) and October, rarely a few early individuals already in August.
Endangerment factors:
Gortyna borelii is in danger of extinction in many places. In earlier times usually intensification (e.g. in vine yards, meadows, edges, transfer into arable land, fertilization, overbuilding) used to be the main threat. Nowadays the last sites are more in danger by bush encroachment/reforestation and by inappropriate maintenance. Appropriate maintenance means no mowing before and during the egg stage and the time of the young larva (between early August and June), but nevertheless good care on bush encroachment. Th best way is partial mowing of a 50%-maximum per annum of borelii-relevant habitat structures in July and if necessary selective removal of grove shoots several times per year. Infested plants are standing usually sunny!
Remarks:
Gortyna borelii occurs in South and parts of Central Europe. It is a bit more common only locally in E- and SE-Europe. In Central Europe it is nowadays only known from very few and largely isolated sites.
The ssp. lunata (Ventral and W-Europe) is listed in annexes II and IV of the FFH directive of the European Union.