In a first step, it was shown that, within the group of viruses encompassing LIV, TBEVNEU, TBEVSOF, OHFV, LGTV, KFDV, and POWV, rates of nonsynonymous substitutions in colinearized E-NS3-NS5 sequences are a linear function of rates of nonsynonymous substitutions in complete E gene sequences ([R.sup.2] = 0.995).