In Europe it is common in most countries but absent from northern Scandinavia, peninsular Italy (found in northern Italy), Portugal, southern and central Spain (found in Cantabrian Mountains and the eastern Pyrenees), the Mediterranean islands and North Africa.

Beyond Europe it is found across much of temperate Asia including Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China and Korea.

The insect can also be very common where there are creeping thistles (Cirsium arvense) or swamp thistles (Cirsium palustre), oregano (Origanum vulgare), forest scabious (Knautia sylvatica), or hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) which are favorite food plants of the imagos.

The males fly in search of newly hatched females in slow, uninterrupted flight and flutter round, about and between grass stems.

Among the food plants are: The female scatters non-adhesive eggs in a slow low flight over grasslands.

The pupa stands generally upright in a flimsy silk cocoon, at the base of a grass tussock.