Cirsium arvense, a plant species native throughout Europe and northern Asia and widely introduced elsewhere
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 favourite foodplants of the imagos.
Cirsium | Cirsium arvense | Cirsium palustre | Cerastium arvense | Thlaspi arvense | Equisetum arvense | Cirsium occidentale | Cirsium eriophorum | Cirsium acaule | A mined leaf of ''Cirsium vulgare |
turatii feed on Carlina vulgaris and Centaurea ambigua, while mature larvae of this subspecies mine the leaves of Cirsium arvense and Centaurea species.
They suck nectar of the preferred blue violet flowers, such as on field scabious (Knautia arvensis), Dove Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa columbaria), meadow knapweed (Centaurea jacea), panicle knapweed (Centaurea stoebe), creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense), Bulbous thistle (Cirsium tuberosum) and ring thistle (Carduus).