Dale Anderson, age 10, of San Bruno, California, for his question:

How did the butterfly get its name?

The first insects to be awarded this name had velvety yellow wings    more or less the color of butter. This was ages ago, most likely in some Mediterranean country. The "butter" part of the name traces even farther back to an older word for cow. This older word was changed in various ways and used to name both cheese and butter. Since these products come from cows, this seemed logical. Sometime later, it also seemed logical to use this butter and cheese word to name things that were colored yellow. Language experts suspect that this is how the first buttery fluttery butterflies got their name.

Later the name was adopted by people of other languages. Naturally there were plenty of butterflies around, displaying other rainbow colors. But in those days, people did not observe differences and similarities for the purpose of classifying insects. Perhaps the original meaning of butterfly was forgotten and it seemed simpler to use the same name for all these velvety winged beauties.