Robber On Robert

My pic shows what I think is a robber fly on a Herb Robert flower. Herb Robert is a member of the Cranesbill family, so called because their seed heads resemble the heads and beaks of cranes. Their scientific name is Geranium.

Because Pelaragoniums, the showy plants originally from South Africa used as bedding, had similar seed heads to Geraniums that is what Linnaeus classified them as and what we call them. Both genera belong to the family Geraniaceae. They were separated into two genera by Charles L’Héritier in 1789.

I much prefer the hardy Geraniums to the, in my view, overly showy Pelargoniums, even though I used to produce many thousands to sell as young plants every year.