Oscularia deltoides being probed

Dark green nectar glands arranged in a circle at the base of an Oscularia deltoides flower produce the tasty enticement for ensuring flower visits from the plant's designated pollinators. Insect tastes acquired and reinforced by survival over numerous generations ensure that certain insects will keep responding instinctively to “the right” flowers.

Most flowers without their insect partners would be doomed to extinction from lacking the seed setting capacity. Most insects without their flower partners would die of hunger and disappear. Many birds and even mammals (like small rodents) also perform pollination services for certain flowering plants. Nature spreads risk, using many different options. All options? Never! Wait for the next round of evolutionary wonders. There will be no end to species modification and innovation as long as conditions keep changing, pushing living species to new survival extremes. Then there are also the less socially inclined flower species that self-pollinate, saving themselves the trouble of nectar production, while putting their trust in nobody. Some flowers doing this don't even bother to open.

Safety first, is for flowers that are pollinated by many species. Other plants have “agreements” varying in insect specific exclusivity, not bothering with spreading their risk widely, or hedging their bets. The extreme case would be a plant fully dependent on a single species pollinator. The converse would be an insect needing its full diet from just one plant species. This plant would have to flower all year round, unless the insect morphs into a non-feeding stage during some seasons, or hibernates.

Many figs are in such single species, mutual relationships with certain wasps. Only the wasp larva eats fig flowers (inside the figs) though, the wasp itself flies about having other dietary options if it eats anything. Mobility would be wasted on an insect species that gains no survival opportunities from walking, running, climbing, slithering, flying, wading or swimming. Might as well have been a plant (Smith, et al, 1998; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).