Scott Litty, age 9, of Poland, Ohio, for his question:

Where does the praying mantis spend the winter?

All summer long, the praying mantis was in the garden, devouring bugs and more bugs. But she cannot survive through the winter. So in late fall she lays a batch of eggs and does her best to see that her children are safe until spring. She lays perhaps a hundred small eggs and hides them in a mass of foamy spit. When the foam dries, it looks like crinkly brown paper.

The grown up mantis dies before winter comes. But the next generation is safe inside a papery egg case. It is roundish and almost as big as a golf ball. It hangs from a twig by one or two strings. The baby mantises may hatch in late winter. But they do not leave their warm, water proof egg case until the spring. The tiny creatures look like mini copies of their mother, except that they are a pasty yellow color. For awhile, they chase around inside their egg case. Then, when the weather outdoors is nice enough, they crawl outside, drop to the ground and go hunting for insects to eat.