Host plants:
The larvae usually feed on dead leaves and other detritus. I could find them in dead oak leaf detritus on the ground in a Quercus frainetto woodland in N-Greece (Sissani NW Kozani) in late autumn 2023 (early November and early December).
Habitat:
Zanclognatha lunalis usually inhabits warm, often humid, but sometimes also dry woodlands with good layer of dead leaves in the lowlands and lower mountains. It also occurs in rocky woodlands, but rocks are not essential. More important seems a mosaic of dense and open woodland parts.
Life cycle:
The larva hibernates obviously in the penultimate instar. It can be shaken out of the litter on the ground. Pupation takes place in a loose cocoon between dead leaves in the ground litter. The moths occur in most often only one and sometimes two generations between about late May and August or September (most often in June/July).
Endangerment factors:
Zanclognatha lunalis occurs locally in Europe and temperate Asia to Japan.