Abstract: Sixty-six character transformation series were selected based on the morphological study of fifty-one species of the genus Ornativalva Gozmány worldwide. The cladistic analysis of fifty-one species was performed using PAUP*4b10. The result shows that heluanensis-group is not a monophyletic group. Hence the modified partition of seven species-groups was proposed:  the heluanensis-group includes O. heluanensis, O. longiductella, O. rufipuncta, O. zonella, O. roseosuffusella; the erubescens-group includes O. levifrons, O. erubescens,  O. lilyella, O. aspera, O. pulchella, O. ignota,  O. frontella, O. arabica, O. sesostrella; the plicella-group includes O. plicella, O. undella, O. xinjiangensis, O. pharaonis; the tamariciella-group includesO. indica, O. misma, O. serratisignella, O. caecigena, O. macrosignella, O. heligmatodes,  O. tamariciella, O. pseudotamariciella, O. kalahariensis, O. sattleri; the plutelliformis-group includes O. triangulella, O. antipyramis, O. singula, O. basistriga, O. plutelliformis, O. grisea, O. sieversi; the cerostomatella-group includes O. acutivalva,O. afghana, O. angulatella, O. cerostomatella, O. cornifrons, O. curvella, O. mixolitha, O. mongolica, O. novicornifrons, O. zhengi, O. zhongningensis; the ornatella-group includes O. ochraceofusca, O. ornatella, O. sinica, O. zepuensis, O. miniscula. Based on the result of the cladistic analysis, the relationships of fourteen areas were derived, which shows that the history of Old Mediterranean Region is complicated. It is also recognized that dispersal is an important process, through which the species of the genus Ornativalva achieved their geographic distribution.

Key words: Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae; Ornativalva, cladistics, cladistic biogeography, species_group