Scarce swallowtail Scarce swallowtail The scarce swallowtail ("Iphiclides podalirius") is a butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. It is also called the sail swallowtail or pear-tree swallowtail. Subspecies include: "Iphiclides podalirius feisthamelii" is sometimes treated as a valid species, "Iphiclides feisthamelii". Despite the name "scarce swallowtail", this species is quite common. The scarcity of United Kingdom migrants is responsible for the English vernacular name. This species is widespread in the East Palearctic ecozone and in most of Europe with the exception of the northern parts. Its range extends northwards to Lower Lusatia and central Poland and eastwards across Asia Minor and Transcaucasia
Holdrian comma fact that the Ancient Greeks (or at least Boethius) believed that in the Pythagorean tuning the tone could be divided in nine commas, four of which forming the diatonic semitone and five the chromatic semitone. If all these commas are exactly of the same size, there results an octave of 5 tones + 2 diatonic semitones, 5 × 9 + 2 × 4 = 53 equal commas. Holder attributes the division of the octave in 53 equal parts to Nicolas Mercator, who would have named the 1/53 part of the octave the "Artificial Comma". Mercator's comma is a name often