Character analyses for discrimination and affinity recognition of the North American Microlepidoptera in the genus Ectoedemia Busck (Nepticulidae: Lepidoptera)

Character analyses have been carried out on the North American species in the genus Ectoedemia Busck in order to obtain a measure of their phenetic affinities. The characters used (140) were not only morphological but ranged widely through aspects of biology, and led to the production of up-dated descriptions. Diagnoses based on, and interpreted through, the numerical results are also given. The most important results from seven cluster analyses and principal co-ordinates analyses with minimum spanning trees, contouring, nearest neighbours and similarity coefficients are discussed.