When she finds one she pounces on it and grasps its hind legs, curling her abdomen upwards so as to be able to inject the prey with venom.

The wasp larva starts developing inside the abdomen of the host, but at about day five it makes its way outwards between two abdominal segments.

It keeps its head inside its still-living host and creates a sac-like structure from its moulted skins, which protects the parts that protrude.

Two or three weeks later it breaks its way out of this sac, feeds briefly on the leafhopper, and then descends to the ground, leaving its host's desiccated husk behind.

It makes a cocoon at the base of a grass stalk where, if it is early in the year, it pupates, emerging as an adult insect some three to six weeks later.