In a rainforest food chain, caterpillars and butterflies eat orchid plants. Toucans eat the caterpillars and butterflies. Leopards eat the toucans.

The statement that accurately describes the energy in this food chain is:

The caterpillars gain energy directly from the orchids.

In this food chain, orchids are the primary producers, and they provide energy to the caterpillars (herbivores) when the caterpillars eat them. The other statements are inaccurate for the following reasons:

• The leopards gain energy directly from the butterflies. (This is false; leopards gain energy from toucans, not directly from butterflies.)
• The orchids have the least amount of available energy. (This is false; orchids, as primary producers, have the most energy available in the food chain.)
• The toucans have more available energy than the butterflies. (This is generally false; typically, the energy decreases as you move up the food chain, meaning toucans have less energy than the butterflies, which are directly consuming the caterpillars and not reliant on them.)

Thus, the correct statement is focused on the relationship between the caterpillars and orchids.