Olive lace bugs (Hemiptera: Tingidae) are small sap-sucking insects that feed on wild and cultivated Olea europaea. The diversity of olive lace bug species in South Africa, the most important olive producer on the continent, has been incompletely surveyed. Adult specimens were collected in the Western Cape province for morphological and DNA-based species identification, and sequencing of complete mitogenomes. Cysteochila lineata, Plerochila australis, Neoplerochila paliatseasi and Neoplerochila sp. were found at 12 sites. Intra- and interspecific genetic divergences and phylogenetic clustering in 30 species in 18 genera of Tingidae using new and publicly available DNA barcodes showed high levels of congruity between taxonomic and genetic data. The phylogenetic position of the four species found in South Africa was inferred using new and available mitogenomes of Tingidae. Notably, olive lace bugs formed a cluster of closely related species. However, Cysteochila was non-monophyletic as C. lineata was recovered as a sister species to P. australis whereas Cysteochila chiniana, the other representative of the genus, was grouped with Trachypeplus jacobsoni and Tingis cardui in a different cluster. This result suggests that feeding on O. europaea may have a common origin in Tingidae and warrants future research on potential evolutionary adaptations of olive lace bugs to this plant host.
Keywords: Cysteochila lineata; DNA barcoding; Neoplerochila paliatseasi; Olea europaea; Plerochila australis.