Michael Rothstein, age 9, of Kalispell, Mont., for his question:

HOW DID THE BUTTERFLY GET ITS NAME?

We aren't exactly sure how the butterfly received its name. But some experts say the name came about because so man,? butterflies have the bright yellow color of butter.

Scientists classify butterflies and moths togeth r in the order called Lepidoptera. There are more than 90,000 diffe.Lent kinds of butterflies and moths on Earth.

The scientific name for the order of insects that butterflies belong to, Lepidoptera, comes from two Greek words: lepidos, meaning scale, and pteron, meaning wing. This name was given to the butterfly because of the thousands of dust like scales that cover its two pairs of wings.

Almost everybody agrees that the beautiful and graceful butterfly is the most handsome of all the insects. Why shouldn't it also have a beautiful sounding name?

Poets seem to go overboard with compliments for the colorful butterfly. They have called them "winged flowers" and "flying gems." Because of their floating flight pattern, some poets have called them "flutter bys."

Sometimes it is a bit hard to believe that the beautiful butterfly was once a wormlike caterpillar. Caterpillars hatch from the eggs of butterflies, and later turn into butterflies.

Caterpillars eat the leaves of trees and plants and also can destroy or harm crops. Butterflies, on the other hand, do no harm, because they cannot bite or chew. And as they fly from flower to flower, drinking nectar, they make it possible for the flowers to develop into fruits and seeds by carrying pollen from one to another.

Butterflies can be found in all parts of the world. You'll find them near the North and South poles, in hot forests near the equator and also in deserts as well as temperate spots. Some kinds of butterflies live only a few weeks, while others may live nearly a year.

Largest of all the world's butter flies is Queen Alexandra from New Guinea, with an 11 inch wingspread. There are many types with wingspreads of only 3/8 inch.
There are four ways to tell a butterfly from a moth:

First, most butterflies fly only during the day, while most moths fly at dusk or even at night.

Second, most butterflies fold their wings straight up over their bodies, while moths rest with their wings spread flat.

The third way to tell the difference between the butterfly and the moth is that all butterflies have bare knobs at the end of both feelers, or antennae. But the antennae of almost all moths are either hairlike or plumy and in a point.

Finally, most butterflies have thin bodies, but the bodies of most moths are plump.

Artists love the butterfly and use designs of his wings in jewelry, paintings and other art objects. Lampshades and screens are sometimes decorated by putting butterflies between layers of paper or plastic.