
Originally Posted by
JeffreH
They certainly appear to be mating - but its hard to tell judging by the pictures. I've observed some grasshoppers simply hanging out on one another before... and the females of some species can even be selective and may allow a male to mount her for several minutes then decide to ditch him... So let me ask you an interesting question: did it appear that their "butts" were touching or connected? This can last for a pretty long time.
The location where the female chooses to lay is species dependent, and I'm not at all familiar with species from your country. There are some 20,000 species in the order Orthoptera that contains crickets, locusts, katydids and grasshoppers... so your guess is honestly as good as mine as to preferred substrate and laying medium. She may lay on leaves, or perhaps twigs...maybe even in the soil. There is also an off chance that she may have a specific host plant to lay on... not sure unfortunately. Most grasshoppers seem to prefer to lay in the soil, however, so I would opt for the coco fiber compost option. Give her a couple of inches of the substrate.