1872.] SPIDERS OF PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 291 



tral yellow band giving off fine, short, lateral lines of the same 

 colour. 



To this, seemingly constant, eastern variety I have added the name 

 of orientalis. 



Erigone femoralis, sp. nov. 



Female adult, length 1 line. 



The cepkalothorax is of ordinary form, and nearly resembles that 

 of Neriene livida (Bl.). The caput is not raised above the thorax ; 

 and the clypeus is vertical, rather exceeding half the facial space in 

 height ; the normal indentations are tolerably strong ; and it is of a 

 very deep rich brown colour. The eyes are small and do not differ 

 much in size ; they are in the usual position of two transverse curved 

 rows; those of the hinder row are equidistant from each other, and those 

 of each lateral pair are obliquely seated on a tubercle ; those of the 

 fore central pair are the smallest of the eight, very dark-coloured and 

 difficult to be seen, and contiguous to each other ; the space between 

 each of these and the hind central nearest to it is very little less than 

 that between the two hind centrals. The legs are moderately long 

 and strong; their relative length 4, 1, 2, 3, those of the fourth pair 

 being perceptibly longer than those of the first ; they are furnished 

 with hairs and fine bristles, and are of a brightish red-brown colour 

 softening to reddish yellow at the tarsi, the femora being of a very 

 deep red-brown and much darker than any other portion, while the 

 tibiae have a pale yellow ring round their extremities nearest to the 

 genual joints. The palpi are moderate in length, of a dark brown 

 colour, and furnished with hairs and bristles. Thefalces are short, 

 strong, and obliquely truncated on their inner extremities, where 

 they are furnished with fine sharp teeth. The maxillce and labium 

 are normal in form ; these parts, with the sternum, are similar in 

 colour to the cephalothorax ; the sternum, however, is of rather a 

 deeper hue. The abdomen is long-oval and moderately convex above ; 

 it projects over the base of the cephalothorax, and is of a glossy jet- 

 black colour, very sparingly clothed with fine hairs ; the genital 

 aperture is large, of a circular or somewhat horseshoe form, and it3 

 corneous margins are red-brown. 



A single adult female was found on a low-growing plant on the 

 plains of the Jordan. 



Erigone dentipalpis, Westr. (Aran. Suec. p. 199), var. sy- 

 riaca, Cambr. 



Although at present I imagine this to be of the same species as 

 our common European form E. dentipalpis, still, as all the distin- 

 guishing specific characters of that species are found, as it were, ex- 

 aggerated or in excess in the present Syrian examples, it may pos- 

 sibly turn out, on further careful examination and comparison, to be 

 distinct ; meanwhile I have stamped its variation from our European 

 form by the additional name var. syriaca. 



These Syrian examples are rather larger than any I have yet found 

 in Europe ; the lobes at the fore extremity of the radial joint of the 



