Diarsia guadarramensis (Boursin, 1928)

Host plants:
The larvae are polyphagous in the herb layer and low-growing shrubs.

Habitat:
Diarsia guadarramensis often settles in a bit damp river valleys with lightly wooded slopes in medium-high altitudes between 900 and 2200m, in the north also lower down.

Life cycle:
I recorded the young larva on ground-near vegetation in a small river valley with quite dry pine-wooded slopes near Riopar (Albacete) in mid-November. The larva should develop in autumn and winter in mild environments, but with true hibernation more in spring in colder ones/high altitudes. In rearing the mature larva rested some weeks prior to pupation. The very variable adults occur in summer.

Remarks:
Diarsia guadarramensis is endemic to the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula where it is found from the Sierra Nevada in the south to Cantabria and the Pyrenees in the north. In the Pyrenees it is locally also found in France.