Antaxius difformis (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1861)


Antaxius difformis: Male lateral [N] Antaxius difformis: Male (Engadine, late September 2008) [N] Antaxius difformis: Male (Engadine, late September 2008) [N] Antaxius difformis: Male (Engadine, late September 2008) [N] Antaxius difformis: Female (Engadin, late September 2008) [N] Antaxius difformis: Female (Engadin, late September 2008) [N] Antaxius difformis: Female (Engadin, late September 2008) [N] Antaxius difformis: Habitat in the Engadin late September 2008 [N] Antaxius difformis: Habitat detail [N]

Nutrition:
Plants and carnal foods (insects etc.)

Habitat:
Antaxius difformis colonizes sunny rocky slopes, scree and loose rock walls at altitudes from 1300 to 2500m above sea level. I met many adults together with Podisma pedestris and Psophus stridulus in a boulder-rich grasslands in the Engadine in about 1700m above sea level.

Life cycle:
The adults are found from mid-July to early October. They are often quite concealed, but are sometimes flushed when the observer walks through the habitat (where possible) and are then betrayed by their escape jump. They often rest in gaps or in tufts of grass between the stones.

Endangerment factors:
Many localities of Antaxius difformis are well protected by their inaccessibility. But especially at low sites Antaxius difformis is certainly at leat locally threatened by bush encroachment or large-scale mining and sometimes even by overbuilding.

Remarks:
The distribution is endemic southern Alpine. Several sites are known from Northern Italy and southern Switzerland. In addition, it is also found in southern parts of the Austrian Alps.



Antaxius hispanicus | Antaxius pedestris | Antaxius sorrezensis | Antaxius spinibrachius