The larvae occurs along shorelines in rock pools containing large amounts of decaying seaweed.

[10] inaturalist map The habitat for this species is freshwater: coastal lagoons, ponds, slow-moving rivers, streams and irrigation ditches.

The species is anthropophilic in southern Europe; towards the northern edge of its range there it is confined to coastal sites.

[11] The species flies very fast and low over ground vegetation, and feeds on yellow composites and white umbellifers: Aster, Berteroa incana, Cistus, Origanum, Salix repens, Taraxacum.

[citation needed] In the north, the larvae of E. aeneus occur in freshwater seapages and brackish rock pools on the sea coast, but elsewhere they occur in a variety of freshwater habitats, including in association with animal dung and in sewage farms.