Clepsis

Abstract: The Holarctic Archips xylosteana Group consists of at least 18 morphologically similar species in the Nearctic, three of which were synonymized with A. argyrospila by Razowski and subsequently returned to species status, two that were described since 1986 but are clearly related to A. argyrospila, and an additional Western clade of A. argyrospila haplotypes that Razowski had not seen. We examined the morphology of all described Nearctic Xylosteana Group members plus one undescribed species, as well as DNA variation in a 816 bp segment of the mitochondrial COI gene for 17 of these species. We also examined three of five species of Archips from the Packardiana Group (=Archippus Freeman), and three outgroup genera (Argyrotaenia Stephens, Clepsis Guenee, and Choristoneura Lederer). Parsimony analyses of the combined molecular and morphological data sets gave better resolution and a better supported tree than did analyses of any single data set. All analyses revealed five species groups, rendering paraphyletic the Xylosteana Group as previously defined. An updated systematic list of Nearctic Archips is provided. We discuss the possibility that our data could support the resurrection of the genus Archippus from synonymy and the recognition of the Cerasivorana Group and the Purpurana Group as new genera. We have elected to leave the genus intact pending future investigations that include the additional Palaearctic members of the group.