Mitogenomics of the Olive Seed Weevil, Marshall and Implications for Its Phylogenetic Position in Curculionidae.

Marshall (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a seed-feeding weevil native to southern Africa; its larvae are known to develop in the fruits of the African Wild Olive and, more rarely, cultivated olives. The species has been mainly found in the Western Cape province of South Africa, but it has remained in relative obscurity because it does not seem to represent a current threat to commercial olive production. As part of an ongoing effort to produce baseline genetic data for olive-associated entomofauna in South Africa, we generated reference DNA barcodes for collected from wild and cultivated olives and sequenced its mitogenome for assessment of the phylogenetic position of the species in the family Curculionidae.

Mitogenomics and phylogenetics of twelve species of African Saturniidae (Lepidoptera).

African Saturniidae (Lepidoptera) include numerous species consumed at the caterpillar stage throughout the continent, and their importance to local communities as a source of nutrition and seasonal income cannot be overestimated. However, baseline genetic data with utility for the characterization of their diversity, phylogeography and phylogenetic relationships have remained scarce compared to their Asian counterparts. To bridge this gap, we sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of 12 species found in southern Africa for comparative mitogenomics and phylogenetic reconstruction of the family, including the first representatives of the tribes Eochroini and Micragonini.

Overview of the Genetic Diversity of African (Termitidae: Macrotermitinae) and Implications for Taxonomy, Ecology and Food Science.

termites play important ecological roles and are consumed by many communities as a delicacy and dietary complement throughout Africa. However, lack of reliable morphological characters has hampered studies of diversity in a wide range of scientific fields including ecology, phylogenetics and food science. In order to place our preliminary assessment of the diversity of in South Africa in context, we analysed a comprehensive dataset of COI sequences for African species including new and publicly available data.