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Where do female grasshoppers lay their eggs?
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Orthoptera
A colorful meadow grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus) on a wooden fence.
Most female grasshoppers lay their eggs in the soil. To do this, the female uses her ovipositor to dig a hole, during which her abdomen is greatly extended. She then deposits several dozen eggs into the hole, surrounding them with a mucilaginous mass that dries into a cylindrical shape known as an egg pod or ootheca.
While soil is the most common location, some species exhibit different behaviors:
* A few species drill holes into dead wood.
* Some place their eggs at the bases of grass clumps.
* Others deposit their eggs on the surfaces of leaves.
* Certain specialized species, such as those in the family Pauliniidae, lay their eggs on underwater aquatic plants.12