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Hemileuca artemis Packard was elevated to species status from long-standing synonymy with H. nevadensis Stretch based upon larval morphology. A review of the historical literature and comparison of rediscovered topotype H. artemis larvae to H. nevadensis larvae and to larvae from White Sands National Park, previously erroneously treated as artemis, justifies the return of the name H. artemis to synonymy with H. nevadensis. Because the name artemis is no longer available, the name associated with the White Sands population and the significance of its previously relied upon larval morphology needed to be addressed. Paired sexual pheromone field tests, sexual pheromone chemical analysis, enhanced DNA sequencing, and larval polyphenism all suggest that the larval character(s) previously relied upon to elevate the White Sands population to species status is not sufficiently noteworthy to warrant species or subspecies status, and the White Sands population is reassigned to H. nevadensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biology of the Hemileuca maia group of "buck moths" in the Great Lakes region is summarized, especially with respect to the northern "maia complex" where adult phenotype is not well-correlated with either pheromone response or perceived host plant associations. Published field trials of pheromone response are updated with respect to host plant associations. We found a reciprocal lack of response to pheromone between willow-feeding "complex" moths in lowland, glaciated habitats to the north and oak-feeding populations in non-glaciated habitats to the south. We discuss how post-glacial host plant distributions — expansion from previous refugia and forestation of the Great Lakes terrain — may have played a key role in structuring current Great Lakes Hemileuca populations. In addition, the subsequent rapid and extreme drying during the mid-Holocene (8,000–3,200 years BP) led to the expansive tall grass prairie, producing a finger-like eastern extension known as the Prairie Peninsula, which probably provided an additional ecological barrier separating these oak and willow-feeding populations. Rapid expansion of willow-feeding populations from Pleistocene refugia after 18,000 years BP offers a more likely explanation, compared to gene flow, for the general lack of genetic divergence previously found in the buck moths of the Great Lakes region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]