Dysauxes ancilla (Linnaeus, 1767)

Host plants:
The larvae feed on lichens and mosses according to literature. But they probably especially feed on rotten and fresh, soft parts of plants of all kinds.

Habitat:
Dysauxes ancilla inhabits bushy, forest-near grasslands with open ground, gappy, dry woodland edges and woody, but xerothermous, rocky areas.

Life cycle:
Dysauxes ancilla flies between mid-June and August. The hibernated caterpillar is fully-grown in May or early June.

Endangerment: endangered

Endangerment factors:
Dysauxes ancilla is endangered on the one hand by total bush encroachment or reforestation, but also through too radical bush removal and generally by eutrophication and intensification (vineyards on former natural slopes).

Remarks:
Dysauxes ancilla occurs on the northeast edge of the Swabian Alb (Germany) often together with the Owlfly (Libelloides coccaius).

Dysauxes ancilla occurs locally in eastern Spain. It is a bit more widespread in southern and Central France, the Southern Alps, Central Italy and the Balkans (but misses in most of Greece). It extends to the north to Germany and the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea and to the east as far as the Urals and across Asia Minor to the Caucasus Mountains.