On a remarkable occurrence at Sharpness of the eqgs of Tetranychus 
lapidus, observed by W. B. Clegram, Esq. By AttEN Harxer, 
F.L.S., Professor of Nat. History, R. A. College, Cirencester. 
Read at Annual Meeting, 30th April, 1889. [With a plate. ] 
On the 30th of August of last year, I received from Mr 
W. B. Clegram, of Saul Lodge, a microscopic slide (exhibited,) 
containing two small pieces of stone, attached to which are a 
great number of what have been determined to be the eggs of 
one of the sociable Mites, Tetranychus lapidus. 
The history of the specimens, given me by Mr Clegram in 
his first and many subsequent communications, was briefly as 
follows. They were found by him in 1872, at the New Docks 
at Sharpness, of which he was then the Engineer. On about 
two acres of land adjoining the works, was a large quantity of 
stone, bricks, pebbles, &c., and on the morning of the 9th 
January, 1872, he noticed that all these pebbles, bricks, and 
other materials (but not the grass,) were covered with a white 
dust, which he at first mistook for lime that had been blown 
over the ground, and enquired of the Contractor if he had been 
discharging lime in the vicinity. Finding this had not been 
done, he made a careful examination of the lime-dust-like 
material, and saw that it consisted of myriads of these minute 
hemi-spherical bodies now identified as eggs. He had been on 
the ground on the previous day, and thinks he must have 
observed them had they then been there. So it would seem 
that they were deposited in a single night. They did not 
appear to increase, or, at any rate, to cover any larger area 
than when first noticed. The ground where they were found 
was from 20 to 40 feet above high water mark. I have now 
to exhibit a Northern Drift pebble partially covered by the 
minute eggs, and their superficial resemblance to a white 
mineral incrustation is most striking. These Northern Drift 
pebbles occur, as is well known, along the river bank at 
Sharpness. 
