1872.] SPIDERS OF PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 301 



no appearance of annulation of the legs at all, while one adult male 

 (found at Nazareth) had the legs very distinctly banded. 



Adult females and immature males were found at Jericho, Tibe- 

 rias, and Beirut, an adult male at Jericho and another at Nazareth. 

 All were found on low-growing plants in geometric snares. 



Epeira solers, Walck. Ins. Apt. ii. p. 41. 



An adult male and females were found at Jerusalem and on the 

 plains of Esdraelon ; they did not differ in any respect from the Eu- 

 ropean forms of the same species. 



Epeira circe, Savign. Arachn. Egypte, pi. 2. fig. 9. 

 An adult male and females were found at Jerusalem. 



Epeira opunti^e, Duf. An. Sc. Phys. torn. iv. pi. 69. fig. 3. 



Adults and immature examples of both sexes (except the adult 

 male, which was rare) were found in abundance at Tiberias ; the 

 thorn-bushes in the cemetery near the town were a tangled maze of 

 their webs. It was in these webs that the curious quasi-parasitic 

 Spider Argyrodes epe'irce (p. 279, supra) was found. At Beirut E. 

 opuntice was abundant among the prickly pears ; and in their webs 

 another species of Argyrodes (A. syriaca, above described, p. 279) 

 was discovered. 



Genus Argiope, Savign. Egypte, Arachn. p. 124, pi. 2. fig. G. 

 Argiope sericea (Sav.). 



Immature examples of both sexes were not rare in geometric webs 

 on low-growing plants on the plains of the Jordan, as well as (but 

 more rarely) in a similar situation at Jerusalem. 



Argiope epeiroides, sp. nov. 



Male adult, length 3g lines ; female adult, length 4| lines. 



The cephalothorax is oval, laterally constricted at the caput, and 

 flattish on the upperside ; it is of a pale yellow colour, and divided 

 longitudinally by a fine brownish line, which has one or two slight 

 enlargements, and in the male a V-shaped marking at the junction 

 of the caput and thorax. 



The eyes are in four distinct pairs ; those of the fore central pair 

 are the largest of the eight, and wider apart than those of the hind 

 central pair, which are very nearly contiguous to each other ; those 

 of each lateral pair are contiguous to each other, oblicpiely seated ; and 

 the fore one of each is separated from the fore central on its side by 

 an interval equal to that which separates the fore centrals from each 

 other. 



The legs are moderately strong and rather long ; their relative 

 length 1, 2, 4, 3 ; between those of the second and fourth pairs the 

 difference is very slight ; they are of a pale yellow colour, furnished 

 with hairs and bristles, and, pretty thickly and regularly, with short 



