Israel Arachnid Laboratory

The arachnid fauna of Israel and its surroundings had been studied since the early 19th century by foreign specialists such as Audouin, O. P. Cambridge and others. Prof. Aharoni, at the early 20th century, was the first local zoologist who collected spiders deliberately, although he did not set up a local collection. It was only at the end of the 1920’s, following the foundation of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, that Prof. Shulov established a local arachnid collection of medical and agricultural importance. With the expansion of the collection staff in the early 1960’s, the collection started growing and an effort was made to collect specimens from Israel and the neighboring areas and to identify and study all arachnid orders. Since Dr. Levy became the collection curator, in the early 1970’s, it became the most comprehensive arachnid collection in the region, and a precious resource for arachnologists worldwide.

The collection includes valuable literature and specimens from all arachnid orders found in the region, including historical (Amitai, Costa, Feldman-Muhsam, Levy, Shulov, Theodor) and more recent collections.