Revue suisse de Zoologie 109 (3): 603-633; septembre 2002 Ground spiders (Gnaphosidae, Araneae) of Crete and adjacent areas of Greece. Taxonomy and distribution. II. Maria CHATZAKI 12 , Konrad THALER 3 & Moysis MYLONAS 1 - 2 1 Dept of Biology, University of Crete, 71 100, Irakleio, Crete, Greece. 2 Natural History Museum of the University of Crete, Knossou Av., 71409 Irakleio, Crete, Greece, Po BOX 2208. 3 Institut für Zoologie und Limnologie der Universität, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Ground spiders (Gnaphosidae, Araneae) of Crete and adjacent areas of Greece. Taxonomy and distribution. II. - Further results of a compre- hensive study of ground spiders (Gnaphosidae) from Crete and the sur- rounding islands Gavdos, Gavdopoula and Dia, the islands Antikithyra, Kos and Karpathos, and from Attiki and Peloponnisos on the Greek mainland, are presented. The taxonomy and distribution of 17 species, be- longing to the genera Anagraphis, Berinda, Berlandina, Gnaphosa, Nomi- sia, Drassodes, Leptodrassus, Scotophaeus, Synaphosus, Cryptodrassus and Cesonia are analyzed. Two species, Nomisia palaestina and Syna- phosus palearcticus, and the genus Cesonia are recorded for the first time in Europe. Four new species, Berinda aegilia, Drassodes oreinos, Crypto- drassus creticus and Cesonia aspida are described and three new combi- nations {Anagraphis pallida [transferred from Talanites], Drassodes serra- tichelis [from Mesklia] and Synaphosus trichopus [from Zelotes]) are proposed. Drassodes volidis and Scotophaeus subcorticis are recognised as new synonyms of D. lutescens and S. peninsularis, respectively. The genus Mesklia Roewer is placed in the synonymy of Drassodes. Key- words: Araneae - Gnaphosidae - Crete - Greece - taxonomy - distri- bution. INTRODUCTION Several authors in the past have pointed out the inadequate state of knowledge of the spiders of Greece and the adjacent areas of the East Mediterranean. Brignoli (1986), in his biogeographical analysis of the area, reported about 700 species and Deltshev (1999) mentioned 642 species for Greece. In his list, the latter also added 59 species for Crete. Bristowe (1935) and Hadjissarantos (1940) reported 30 and 32 gnaphosid species, respectively, from Greece. Until recently, 34 gnaphosid species were recorded from Crete. Most of these records have never been revised again. As far as spider diversity of Greece is concerned, this family has been severely under- estimated in the literature and, no doubt, many species will be discovered in the future. Manuscriptaccepted28.02.2002