If your answer is a Yes, you must have been hallucinating because butterflies do not eat. Hold on, it doesnât mean they starve themselves to death. Butterflies actually do eat, but they do not eat solid food. They feed only on liquids. So literally, they nourish from drinking. The staple butterfly food is the nectar of flowers. They have something like a straw called Proboscis to suck nectar out of flowers.