1872.] SPIDERS OF PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 235 



are well developed, and from a strong circular prominence at the 

 hinder part they emit a long, rather slender, red-brown filiform 

 spine, which curves round their base, but free from the surface, and 

 along their outer side, and after a sharpish indenture, has its extreme 

 point (including some portion of the spine itself) in contact with a 

 longish, strong, corneous process, which issues from near the middle 

 of the palpal organs, and has a direction parallel with, but free from, 

 the outer margin of the digital joint. 



These Egyptian examples, although undoubtedly of the same spe- 

 cies as those found in Palestine, were larger, measuring 3| lines in 

 length. 



Drassus dalmatensis, L. Koch, Die Arachn. Fam. der Drassid. 

 p. 89, pi. iv. fig. 59. 



An adult female of this species was found under a stone at 

 Damascus. 



Drassus lacertosus, sp. nov. (Plate XV. fig. 12.) 



Male adult, length 5^ lines. 



This fine and remarkable species is allied to D. lapidicolens(Wa\ck.), 

 but may be easily distinguished by strong differences in some parts 

 of the structural detail. The whole Spider is of a pale yellowish 

 colour, the abdomen being also tinged with dusky drab, and thinly 

 clothed with fine hairs (both on the cephalothorax and abdomen) of 

 a pale colour and somewhat silky nature. The cephalothorax has 

 the caput broad and truncate in front, and its upper surface more 

 convex and rounded than in D. lapidicolens. The eyes are small, 

 of a pearl-white margined with black, and placed in two nearly pa- 

 rallel transverse rows ; the four central eyes form a square ; those of 

 each lateral pair are placed obliquely, and are nearly, if not quite, as 

 widely separated from each other as those of the fore and hind central 

 pairs ; those of the latter are nearer together than each is to the lateral 

 of the same row on its side ; while the four of the front row are sepa- 

 rated from each other by equal spaces. The legs are moderately long 

 and strong; their relative length 4, 1, 2, 3 ; and they are furnished 

 sparingly with hairs and spines ; the tarsi and metatarsi of the first 

 and second pairs, and the tarsi of the third and fourth, have a double, 

 parallel, longitudinal series of short, strong, black, close-set bristles ; 

 these spread outwards on either side ; those on the tarsi are the 

 densest, and are confluent with the ordinary claw-tuft. 



The palpi are long and strong: the humeral joint is long and 

 unusually strong, being equal in length to the cubital and radial to- 

 gether, and stouter than the femora of the first pair of legs ; it 

 enlarges gradually from its base to the extremity, near which, on the 

 upperside, is a short, transverse row of three short, strong, somewhat 

 tooth-like and slightly curved black spines, the outer spine being 

 much shorter than the inner one, and the length of the middle one 

 intermediate between them : the radial juint is long and cylindrical, 

 half as long again as the cubital, but not so strong, and is destitute 

 of any prominence or apophysis : the digital joint is small, and of a 



