1872.] SPIDERS OF PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 215 



Damascus by the river Abana, Abila, Suk Wady Barada, and Sur- 

 ghaya to Baalbec and the Lebanon, and so to Beirut. I regretted 

 much not being able to work the Lebanon district more thoroughly 

 than the mere ride through some portion of it enabled me to do : 

 just at the time of my visit to that part (middle of May) insect 

 life was becoming abundant, and I do not doubt that among the 

 Araneidea the number of species in the families Theridiides and 

 Epeirides (some groups of both which families are but scantily 

 represented in my collection) might have been greatly added to ; 

 the time and money, however, allotted to my eastern trip had come 

 to an end ; and I took leave of those most interesting regions with 

 the greater regret, inasmuch as only the day previous to my de- 

 parture I found several of the most curious and least-European- 

 looking of the Spiders in the collection, viz. Thomisus setiger(p. 307), 

 Ariamne longicaudata (p. 277), Argyrodes syriaca (p. 279), ldiops 

 syriacus (p. 216), and Ctenophora monticola, Bl. (p. 287). 



Before concluding this short introductory notice I must express 

 my thanks to Dr. L. Koch, of Niirnberg, and Mons. Eugene Simon, 

 of Paris, who have given me their valuable assistance in working out 

 the two large families before mentioned (Drassides, Dr. Koch ; Sal- 

 ticides, M. Simon). I had hoped long ere this to have seen the 

 new species of Drassides described and figured by Dr. Koch in his 

 invaluable work 'Die Arachnidenfamilie der Drassiden.' This work 

 is still in an unfinished state, and its continuation indefinitely post- 

 poned. The names of nearly all the new species of Drassides are 

 those conferred upon them by Dr. Koch, and communicated to me 

 in his letters on the subject ; these names I have, with Dr. Koch's 

 kind consent, retained in the descriptions given below. As alluded 

 to before, the systematic arrangement adopted in the following pages 

 is taken from an unpublished scheme drawn up by myself several 

 years ago, but partially adopted in the arachnological portion of the 

 •Zoological Record,' vol. vii. 1870, pp. 207-224. 



N.B. — Since writing the above Dr. L. Koch has most generously 

 placed at my disposal for this paper all the beautifully executed 

 dissectional sketches he had executed of the Palestine and Syrian 

 Drassides from the examples described below. 



Order ARANEIDEA. 



Fam. Theraphosides. 



Without doubt the Syrian and Palestine species of this family 

 would be greatly increased by any araclmologist with leisure to work 

 special districts closely ; but a scrambling ride gives very little chauce 

 of meeting with them. 



Genus Ischnocolus (Ausserer). 



Ischnocolus syriacus, Aeuss. Beitriige zur Kenntniss der Arach- 

 nidenfamilie der Territelariae, Verh. z.-b. Gesellsch. Wien, 1871, 

 Bd. xxi. p. 189. 



Adult males and females at Jerusalem. 



