PREFACE. xiii 



The Amchnidce have scarcely yet been sufficiently determined, to 

 enable us to add any important facts to the above induction. But one 

 extensive family, the Drassidcs, has been worked out by the Rev. O. P. 

 Cambridge and Dr. Koch, who report that of the 13 known genera of 

 this family, 8 are represented in Palestine, of which 7 are European, 

 5 being also found in Egypt, none being peculiar to Palestine. Of 

 46 species of Palestine Drassidcc, 24 are, so far as our present knowledge 

 extends, peculiar, 13 are European, and 9 Egyptian. Admitting therefore 

 that many of the new species will prove to have a wider range, we have 

 here also a predominant PaLnearctic character, with an infusion of African, 

 and probably a few localized types. 



Similar inferences may be drawn from an examination of the Insect 

 Fauna, of which, however, our knowledge is merely fragmentary. The 

 determination of 380 species of Colcoptera and of 60 species of Orthoplcra, 

 which are all that have been collected, no naturalist having as yet devoted 

 himself to them, has not yet been accomplished. 



But of the Hciniptcra, 59 in number, 16 species appear to be new, 

 the others with few exceptions being known from Northern Syria and 

 Asia Minor. Of the Lcpidoptera our knowledge is most imperfect. But 

 the results of an examination of the existing collections are in harmony 

 with those of the rest of the Fauna. Of 76 Rhopalocera, 68 belong to the 

 Eastern Mediterranean, and are therefore Palaearctic, 5 are Ethiopian, 

 being Nubian species, and 3 are new. These last 8 species are confined 

 to the basin of the Dead Sea. Of 166 Noctiice, and 46 Tineidcs, 

 25 NoducB and 30 Tineidce are new. The 16 Tineidce previously described, 

 and all the Noctna hitherto known, belong to the Eastern Mediterranean, 

 and do not indicate any Ethiopian affinities. But it must be mentioned 

 that no entomological collector has worked as yet in the Jordan valley 

 during the latter part of spring, when these insects would be most 

 numerous; and even as it is, 14 of the 30 peculiar Microlepidoptera are 

 from the plains of Jordan only. 



It may here be stated that an examination of sand from the roots of 

 Anastatica hierocJntntina gathered at the north end of the Dead Sea, 

 shows that the Rhizopod fauna was analogous to that of the Red Sea 

 and Indian Ocean, being composed of Gr. capnoliis and other Indian 

 Ocean forms. 



