1872.] SPIDERS OF PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 241 



the legs, as well as thickly clotted with minute punctures. The abdo- 

 men is of an oval form and of a washed-out drab-yellow colour ; the 

 genital aperture is small aud of characteristic form, not easy to be 

 described, but better seen in the figure given (PI. XV. fig. 18). 



A single adult female of this Spider was found under a stone on 

 the Lebanon. 



Genus Melanophora (Koch). 



Melanophora l^eta, sp. nov. (Plate XV. fig. 19.) 



Male adult, length 2\ lines. 



The cephalothorax of this species (which is of ordinary form and 

 structure) is of a yellowish red -brown colour (in one example suffused 

 slightly with dusky black). The eyes are rather compactly grouped 

 in two transverse nearly straight parallel lines, of which the foremost 

 is the shortest ; those of the hind central pair are oval, and further 

 from each other than each is from the lateral on its side ; the position 

 also of the fore centrals with respect to the fore laterals is similar ; 

 and these last are the largest of the eight, and each of them with the 

 hind lateral and hind central on its side form an isosceles triangle, of 

 which the hind lateral eye is the apex. The legs are moderate in 

 length and strength, and are of a yellow-brown colour more or less 

 suffused with dusky black ; they are furnished with hairs and, on the 

 tibiae and metatarsi of the third and fourth pairs, a few spines ; the 

 terminal tarsal claws of the legs of the fourth pair are longer than 

 those of the other legs. 



The palpi are similar in colour to the legs, and short ; the radial 

 joint is very short, not exceeding one-half of the length of the cubital 

 joint, and it has a small slightly tapering, but not sharply pointed, 

 apophysis from its outer extremity ; the digital joint is large, consi- 

 derably exceeding in length that of the radial and cubital together ; 

 the palpal organs are well-developed but not very complex, consisting 

 of some closely compacted whitish and red-brown corneous processes. 

 The falces are moderate in length and strength ; they project for- 

 wards and are very prominent, and indeed rather abruptly humped 

 near their base in front, and the humped portion is furnished with 

 longish black curved bristles. The maxillce are strong and broad at 

 the insertion of the palpi, also curved and inclined to the labium, and 

 transversely impressed. The labium appeared to be of peculiar form, 

 having the appearance of an elongate triangular piece, around the 

 upper half of which another portion spreads out equally on all sides 

 in a somewhat quadrate form. 



The abdomen is small and of an oblong-oval form ; it is of a dark 

 sooty-black colour, pretty thickly clothed with short silky hairs ; on 

 the fore margin is a largish semicircular (the curve directed forwards) 

 coriaceous yellow-brown patch, indistinctly visible. The spinners are 

 moderately strong, long, and prominent ; those of the inferior pair are 

 the longest and strongest ; the underside of the abdomen is paler 

 than the upperside. 



An immature female differed only in being larger and more brightly 

 coloured. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1872, No. XVI. 



