Crassula tecta hosting a fly

This big fly, motivated by hunger, is marketing its community service role of pollinating Crassula tecta flowers. As lunch is part of the deal, it is more like earning its living; no lunch is free after all.

With every one of its six feet in or on a different flower while poking its proboscis into yet another, there is ample opportunity for gathering and depositing pollen as it moves.

Note the sturdy stalk of the flower cluster. It not only supports its own flowers, but also serves to uphold the untold flying visitors frequenting the landing strip while flowers last. Hence the appropriately robust design.

Strength of materials and structures isn’t only an engineering issue, but the outcome of much evolutionary adaptation in nature.