Olive seed wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea), potentially important pests of olive crops in the Western Cape of South Africa

Most phytophagous insects on cultivated olives, Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea, in South Africa are native and come from the local wild olive tree, Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata. This paper presents the first qualitative and comparative data regarding the phytophagous seed wasps on cultivated and wild olives. From 2009 to 2012, 62 random fruit samples were collected from untreated cultivated olive trees and 53 random fruit samples from wild olives at 13 different localities in the Western Cape. During spring 2013 and summer 2014, olives collected from the trees were dissected with a scalpel (when the pit was still soft) in search of seed wasp eggs and young larvae or cut wi…