122 
Psyche 
[December 
over by the British in 1945, so that only a few large trees 
remain. Most of this forest land is now clothed with 
second growth of small spruces and shrubs. The Hadeth 
cedars are being heavily but sporadically cut at the present 
time, but the other two forests have been largely uncut 
for the last twenty years. Most of these forest lands 
support some fauna in the deeper soil layers, even during 
the driest seasons. 
In addition to the forest regions a large number of 
steep valleys occur where rain and surface water maintain 
continuous moist conditions. Such areas usually have a 
lush mesophytic flora, which is of striking contrast to 
the barren overgrazed xerophytic vegetation of the sur- 
rounding mountains. Such areas have an abundant col- 
lembolan fauna and because they are isolated by large 
stretches of dry, impoverished territory, the fauna of 
each valley is usually somewhat unique. 
A last major habitat type is represented by the Northern 
Latakian Pine Forest. This large forest is situated directly 
below the Turkish border and is continuous into Southern 
Turkey. The area on the whole is similar to the mountain 
forests of Lebanon except for 1.) the development of a 
true podsol, and 2.) the existence of isolated patches of 
beech-oak mesophytic forest. These last areas have prob- 
ably the richest collembolan faunas of any region of the 
Near East with many forms being represented from these 
areas only. These patches of deciduous forest occur ap- 
parently only at regions of excessive ground water and 
remain humid during most of the year. In this, and other 
respects, these patches of mesophytic woods resemble the 
isolated humid valleys of the high Lebanon Mountains, 
but are infinitely richer in fauna, possibly due to their 
existence in the center of the well populated pine woods 
area. 
General Zoogeographical Considerations 
The collembolan fauna of this area belongs to four 
major distribution groups. In order of their representa- 
tion in the fauna, these are: 1.) Circum-Mediterranean ; 
2.) Holarctic-Cosmopolitan ; 3.) Xerophytic North African 
