Southern European marshland pyralid
caterpillars often stay in the lower strata of the crop, sometimes attacking the stem of the plant as well as the leaves. Late instar larvae burrow into soft [...] possibly stem collapse. The holes bored into the stem can facilitate infection by the fungus Botrytis cinerea. In gerbera, the flower buds may also be [...] has even been known for the caterpillars to inflict damage to the roots of crops cultivated in an ebb-and-flow irrigation system. The damage threshold varies