Stauroderus scalaris (Fischer-Waldheim, 1846)

Nutrition:
The animals feed particularly on grasses.

Habitat:
Stauroderus scalaris inhabits especially warm and dry grasslands, pastures and extensive meadows with medium-high vegetation. More rarely, Stauroderus scalaris also occurs in alpine screes or on forest clearings.

Life cycle:
The adults appear from June to October.

Endangerment: threatened with extinction

Endangerment factors:
Stauroderus scalaris is locally endangered especially due to agricultural intensification of grasslands such as fertilization, frequent cutting and conversion into fields. Another important point is reforestation.

Remarks:
The males generate a loud flight buzzing as it is the case with Psophus stridulus, Bryodemella tuberculata and Stenobothrus rubicundulus in their own specific patterns.

The total distribution ranges from the Pyrenees (an isolated relic population still in Southern Spain in the Sierra Nevada) across Southern France, the Alps (including the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb) and the Apennines to the Balkans. From there, the distribution area extends across Asia Minor and southern Russia to Siberia.