Host plants:
The caterpillar is likely to live polyphagous on herbs and grasses close to the ground. According to literature, they should prefer wilted or dead plant parts.
Habitat:
Athetis gluteosa inhabits dry warm habitats with a certain proportion of open ground as dry grasslands, rocks and gravel slopes with woods, steppe-like heathland, rail tracks and similar locations.
Life cycle:
The caterpillar overwinters and the moths fly from mid-June to mid-August.
Endangerment: endangered
Endangerment factors:
The usually only locally occurring species is endangered significantly as fallow land, dry grasslands, gappy woodland edges and similar sites are more and more eliminated in the landscape (agriculture, industry, roads, settlements).
Remarks:
Athetis gluteosa occurs across Europe and temperate Asia to Japan. It is absent from the extreme north and south of Europe (south to Bulgaria, Central Italy and Southern France). It is also otherwise very local.