Stenobothrus nigromaculatus (Herrich-Schäffer, 1840)

Nutrition:
Grasses

Habitat:
Stenobothrus nigromaculatus is a very demanding and warmth loving species of nutrient-poor grasslands. The insects need sun-exposed, only gappy and rather low growing, grazed (but not overgrazed!) nutrient-poor grassland and steppe-like heathland. Most abundant populations are generally observed at places where gappy, moss- and lichen-rich areas are interspersed with higher growing ones in form of a mosaic. Sometimes, Stenobothrus nigromaculatus can occur abundant even in a small area, such as I observed in a just 1 hectare large, steep steppe heath in a beech forest with the Owlfly (eastern Swabian Alb).

Life cycle:
The adults appear quite early in June and live until well into October. Eggs are laid in open soil or moss.

Endangerment: threatened with extinction

Endangerment factors:
Stenobothrus nigromaculatus is extremely threatened because the gappy areas are in strong decline in the grasslands (eutrophication and abandonment of grazing). Some habitats are even these days still destroyed due to urban sprawl or agricultural expansion.

Remarks:
Stenobothrus nigromaculatus is distributed locally from Northern Spain across southern and parts of Central Europe to Siberia.

Stenobothrus nigromaculatus has already disappeared in Germany from the vast majority of previously known sites or has been pushed back to unviable remnants, dying out one after another.