362 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Sept., 1914. 



Of the Amphipoda, the two species of Gammarus are 

 truly aquatic while the Orchestia is more properly a semi- 

 aquatic form, since it was found under stones above but 

 near the margin of the lake. Asellus coxalis is the onlv 

 truly aquatic Isopoda in the collection, Philoscia couchii and 

 Leptotrichus , sp., being semi-aquatic, and Metoponorthus swam- 

 merdami, terrestrial. 



Of the species in the collection, one Amphipod, G. syria- 

 cus, and one Isopod, A. coxalis, are endemic and have not so far 

 been found outside Syria. The remaining species are distinctly 

 "Mediterranean" in character though one, Orchestia platensis, 

 is known also from the Atlantic coasts of America. Philoscia 

 couchii, though not recorded from Syria hitherto, has an 

 extensive distribution on the shores of the Mediterranean basin 

 and on the Atlantic shores of Europe as far north as the south 

 of England and the west of Ireland. It has, up till now 

 been found only near the sea, so that its association with 

 comparatively fresh water in Syria is a new factor in its ecology 



AMPHIPODA GAMMARIDEA. 



Family Gammaridae. 

 Gammarus pungens, M.-Ed. 



Localities: Wadi Semakh, h. Tiberias, under stones at 

 edge of lake, 13th October, 1912-eighteen. Mejdal. L. Tibe- 

 rias, lower surface of stones in small brackish spring— ten. 

 Lake Tiberias, under stones at the edge of the lake, on the 

 south and west side— common. Et Tabghah, L. Tiberias, 

 among grasses and water plants— thirty. 



These records show that this species is abundantly and 

 regularly distributed round the entire margin of the lake. 

 Chevreux (1895) who is the only previous recorder of this 

 form from the Lake of Tiberias, likewise found it to be abun- 

 dant on practically all the shores of the lake The species is 

 known otherwise from Italy, Sicily and Cyprus and represents, 

 tneretore, in L. Tiberias a mediterranean element. 



Gammarus syriacus, Chevreux. 



Localities: R. Barada, Damascus- twenty three, up to 10 

 mm. in length. Spring at Ain-et-Tineh L. Tiberias, under 

 stones, October 1912— two. 



This species is readily distinguished from G. pungens by 

 the form of the third pair of uropods. In the latter species, 

 the inner ramus of these appendages is quite short, shorter 

 than the peduncle, whereas in G. syriacus the inner ramus of 

 the uropods is at least two-thirds of the length of the outer. 



G. syriacus is at present only known from the fresh 



