New records of the huntsman spider genusOlios(Araneae: Sparassidae) from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan

Two species of the spider genus Olios are recorded for the first time from the Middle East, namely O. sericeus (Kroneberg, 1875 Kroneberg, A. (1875): Araneae. In: Fedtschenko, A. P. (Ed.), Puteshestvie v Tourkestan [Reisen in Turkestan. Zoologischer Theil]. Nachrichten der Gesellschaft der Freunde der Naturwis-senschaften zu Moskau, 19, 1–58. [Google Scholar]) from Afghanistan and Iran, and O. iranii (Pocock, 1901 Pocock, R. I. (1901): Descriptions of some new species of spiders from British India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 13, 478–498. [Google Scholar]) from Iraq. Previously recorded species of Olios are shown to be mis-identifications. A comparative diagnosis is provided for these two newly recorded-species.