Scale (insect anatomy) and enable the insect to escape. (Forsyth 1992:12) Thomas Eisner tested spiderwebs' effectiveness by dropping various insects onto the webs. Moths were consistently able to escape, and all left impact spots where scales had stuck to the web. Eisner found these spots to be common. (Eisner 2003:218-220) Scales also help increase the lift to drag ratio in gliding flight. Successive close-ups of the scales of a Peacock wing Scale (insect anatomy) The presence of scales on the wings of Lepidoptera, comprising moths and butterflies, characterises this order of insects. The name is derived from Ancient Greek λεπίδος (scale) and πτερόν
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