Lisa Robinson, age 8, of Fredericton, N.B., Canada, for her question:

WHAT DOES A BUTTERFLY EAT?

There are thousands of different butterflies and moths, and each type has its own way of life. Some have long tubes to suck up nectar from the flowers. Some are able to bite off bits of meat and plant food. Some types eat decaying food, such as dead insects. But, strange to say, a lot of butterflies eat nothing at all  though now and then they sip a drop of dew.

When a butterfly hatches from a chrysalis, it is a full size adult. So it needs no food to grow any bigger. Before the chrysalis stage, it was a hungry caterpillar  who ate enough to last a whole lifetime. As a rule, the grown up butterflies eat only enough to keep up their strength.

Some types that eat plant and animal food may last a year or so. Those that eat nothing at all live only for a few weeks.