Mesoligia literosa (Haworth, 1809)

Host plants:
The caterpillar lives in grass blades. In the central Vinschgau (Venosta), I found a caterpillar in a rather atypical standing Dactylis glomerata at a trailside in a bright forest-steppe grasslands complex in May 2011.

Habitat:
Mesoligia literosa inhabits dry slopes, steppe-like grasslands and locally also coastal dunes and similar places.

Life cycle:
The caterpillar overwinters and is usually grown in May. The caterpillars live similar to the related species in the grass blades respectively between the sheet approaches/sheaths and gnaw through the stalks. The moths fly from July to late August/early September.

Endangerment factors:
Mesoligia literosa is severely threatened by habitat loss in many regions. On the coasts, it suffers mainly from tourist activities (beaches, overbuilding) , on dry slopes more from agricultural and forestry activities (viticulture and afforestations) and succession.

Remarks:
Mesoligia literosa occurs very locally from Northwest Africa across Europe (missing here in many areas completely) to Central Asia.

Hints on determination:
Mesoligia literosa can be recognized by the black bar in the collar, which separates a cranial more gray from a caudal mor reddish brown field.