  ``Beat'' patterns are shown to appear in the octupole bands of several
actinides and rare earths, their appearance being independent from the formula
used in order to isolate and demonstrate them. It is shown that the recent
formalism, making use of discrete approximations to derivatives of the
transition energies (or of the energy levels) gives results consistent with the
traditional formulae. In both regions it is seen that the first vanishing of
the staggering occurs at higher values of the angular momentum I in nuclei
exhibiting higher staggering at low I. Since these nuclei happen to be good
rotators, the observed slow decrease of the amplitude of the staggering with
increasing I is in good agreement with the parameter independent predictions of
the su(3) (rotational) limit of several algebraic models. In the actinides it
has been found that within each series of isotopes the odd-even staggering
exhibits minima at N=134 and N=146, while a local maximum is shown at N=142,
these findings being in agreement with the recent suggestion of a secondary
maximum of octupole deformation around N=146.
