Ruspolia nitidula (Scopoli, 1786)

Nutrition:
Plants (especially grasses) and carnal foods (other insects)

Habitat:
Ruspolia nitidula prefers moist habitats as fens, wet meadows, silting zones and similar locations. In rather moist macro climate (Ticino) it is occasionally also found in drier sites, if the vegetation is sufficiently high and dense.

Life cycle:
The eggs overwinter. Imagines are observed late from July/August to October. Ruspolia nitidula is a relative good flyer for its size.

Endangerment: threatened with extinction

Endangerment factors:
In Germany Ruspolia nitidula is found only in the Lake Constance basin and has been forced back to a few locations. Nevertheless, the last Bavarian site (a species-rich fen with Maculinea teleius and many other species) was affected by a new national road and a horse farm in the 1990s.

In total, Ruspolia nitidula is endangered in many places by drainage, intense agriculture (corn fields, manure meadows), eutrophication, bush encroachment in fallow land, afforestation and overbuilding. But it might be favoured by global warming at its northern border.

Remarks:
In southern Europe Ruspolia nitidula is still quite widespread. The next occurrences outside Germany (and outside the area of Lake Constance) are found particularly in Switzerland (fen remnants in the midland as well as locations in Ticino and Geneva) and eastern Austria.