a contributioii to Arachnology, the following descriptions are offered of a numbei- 

 of Spidcrs, rnostly Eiiropean, part of which appear to be new to science, and the re- 

 inainder to be iinperfectly or at least not generally known. — That we are as yet far 

 removed from a perfect knowledge of the araehnologieal portion of the fauna of Europé, 

 inay be concluded from the great nuniber of neAv forms, of late years described b}' 

 Simon, Cambridge, L. Koch, Canestrini, Pavesi and others, and which still continue to 

 be discovered. Even the north-western and central parts of Europé, the spiders of 

 which have long been pretty accurately studied, still otfer a good aftercrop of new 

 species; but it is especially the conntries round the Mediterranean - whose spider- 

 fauna has of late been so meritoriously illustrated by Simon — that reward with re- 

 markable discoveries the newly awakened lively interest for the study of these ani- 

 mals. The Arachnoidea of eastern Europé are as yet comparatively but little studied. 

 Much then remains to be discovered in the domain of the araehnologieal fauna of 

 Europé: of some genera, for ex. Erigone Sav. et Aud. and Linypliia (Latr.), probabl}' 

 not half the species belonging to our quarter of the world are known. — The species 

 which I here dcscribe are collected from many and Avidely separated parts of Europé '): 

 and as the spider-fauna of northern Africa shows a close agreement with that of 

 southern Europé, and the whole Mediterranean basin may be considered as a single 

 zoological province, I have also admitted descriptions of sundr}' north-African species. 

 For the opportunities I have had of examining most of these spiders, I am under obli- 

 gations to several zoologists and friends, as Prof. F. W. Mäklin, who favoured me with 

 a large nuraber of spiders belonging to the zoological Museum of the Universit}' of 

 Helsingfors (most of them collected in southern Russia by the late Counsellor of State 

 Prof. Al. v. Nordmann); Prof. J. C. Schiödte, who sent me for examination a collec- 

 tion of European spiders from the Zoological Museum at Copenhagen; as also Prof. 

 Giov. Canestrini of Padova, Dr H. Zimmermann of Limburg an der i>ahn, Colonel Dr 

 A. W. M. van Hasselt of the Hague, Mr N. Westring of Gottenburg, Dr W. A. G. 

 Wetter of Lund, Mr Al. Croneberg of Moskow, Mr L. Taczanowski of Warsaw, Prof. 

 Osw. Heer of Zurich, and others, and I herewith beg to return to all of them m} 

 hearty thanks for the assistance they have so obligingly given me. — As regards the 

 systematic arrangement of the families and genera, I have followed, with some slight 

 modifications, the classification proposed in my work "On European Spiders". ^) I have 



') Of the European species believecl to l)e new, I have j^iven diagnoses partly in a paper with the title ; 



"Verzeichniss Siidrussischer Spinuen" (Hovte Soc. Entom. Ross., XI), partly in "Diagnoses Arauearum Euro- 



poearum aliquot novarura" (Tijdschr. voor Entom., XVIII). 

 ■■^) Simon has lately (Aran. nouv. ou peu connus du midi de TEurope, •1'' Mém., iii Mém. de la Soc. Roy. 



d. Sciences de Liége, 2"^ Sér., T. V, p. 5 [1873]) divided the Order of Spiders into four Suborders, 



1:0 Theraphosce (= Territelarice + Filistatoidce Thor.), 2:o Gnaphosa; (~ Dysderoidce + Scytodinoe Thor.), 



