What is black, yellow and coated in pollen?

Bumblebee, you say? A panel of top judges in California reviewed the matter and came up with fish, a judgment sending ripples across the state.

The unanimous ruling last week by a state appeals court was intended to straighten out a legal swarm involving conservationists, farmers and the interpretation of a scientifically challenged, half-century-old law.

The animal-kingdom confusion kicked off four years ago when public-interest groups asked California to include four types of bumblebee on its list of endangered species. Bee populations are declining in California and elsewhere.