Eddy Radke, age 10, of Lake City, Utah, for his question:

IS IT TRUE THAT BUTTERFLIES FLY SOUTH IN WINTER?

Most butterflies live only for a couple of weeks or so. Before they perish, they are sure to hide batches of eggs to hatch the next spring. But there are exceptions to the general rule. One of these is the handsome monarch butterfly. Come fall, this brown orange beauty departs with a flock of friends and relatives. They start out from places all over North America and fly southward, perhaps for hundreds of miles and sometimes for a thousand.

At last they arrive in the southland, where winters are warm and sunny. Many of them have favorite winter homes in Southern California or parts of Texas. Sad to say, many of them die of old age. But in early spring, the survivors start back on the long journeys back to their summer homes. Next fall, another generation of monarch butterflies will migrate to spend the winter in the southland.