The tigermoth genus Utetheisa is distributed worldwide, on continents and islands throughout the Old and New Worlds. Of the twenty-nine species currently recognized, four occur in the Americas. The rattlebox moth U. ornatrix is widely distributed through the Americas, while the remaining three are endemic to the Galápagos Islands. Nearly all species feed on pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) containing hosts, and all except the Galápagos endemics are aposematic. The behavior of some Utetheisa species such as the rattlebox moth U. ornatrix has been well studied but the taxonomy of the genus remains unresolved. Recently, several species from two other genera Pitasila Moore and Atasca Swinhoe were synonymized with Utetheisa but their placement in the genus has yet to be tested in a phylogenetic framework. A phylogeny of 20 Utetheisa species was reconstructed with 106 characters derived from adult morphology. Pitasila and Utetheisa were recovered as congeners. The rattlebox moth U. ornatrix and three Galápagos endemics were separately embedded in a clade of Old World species. The Galápagos endemics represented three separate invasions of the New World, and three acquisitions of crypsis in the genus.