I knew about this behaviour of wasps, but never had the opportunity to see it, much less to photograph it.
I was very excited by the show, and it was a very interesting and rewarding experience.
The series is presented here in chronological order.

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The show began when I spotted a tiny (around 1cm) beautiful
Golden Yellow Chalcid Wasp (spilochalcis mariae) over a leaf in our Botanical Garden:


Beautiful, isn't it? Look at the legs, how different they are.
And the shape of the body is not 'standard' by any means.
It was completely still over the leaf. Not a single movement. Still like dead.
Suddenly, it began to walk in the leaf, reached the border, and disappear below it.
I said a bunch of bad words, as you can imagine...

I was leaving the scene, when I decided to came back to get another shot of the wasp below the leaf.
I saw the wasp, but it was in a bad position because of the flash diffuser. ard to take a good shot.
Anyway, looking through the EVF, I saw a web. I thought "Some spider around"...
And then I perceived a movement. "The spider!", I thought.
But then, looking again, I realized there was no spider, but a pupa,
and there was no web, but a protective cocoon:


Suddenly, I saw it: below it's body, the wasp had a HUGE sting...


Then I remembered the story my father told me about wasps laying eggs into spiders,
for the babies to feed from the living spider... the perfect fresh food.
The sting was indeed an ovipositor!
The wasp was trying to lay its eggs inside the pupa!!

I then decided to forget about the wasp and concentrate on the ovipositor.
The wasp tried several times, missing the pupa badly:


Look at this last shot, the position of the legs, and how the wasp puts big pressure to the cocoon, deforming it.
Is the strange shape of the hind legs related to this pressure and deformation of cocoons? No idea, of course.

Then the wasp released the pressure, took off the ovipositor, and repositioned its body....


Just for you to be a little scared, look at this close up of the ovipositor:


Then... the wasp pointed the ovipositor in the right direction and.... Success!


Close up of the above:


The pupa felt the ovipositor, and tried to react. Too late.


A global view


It's done...


Finally, the wasp flew away, leaving the poor pupa with its painful and short destiny.
But the pupa was quiet, as if nothing had happen:




PS: I would like to thank Daniel Marlos and the wonderful site whatsthatbug.com for identifying the wasp species.

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