CHARLESTON, W.Va.—West Virginia officials investigating reports of a powder in the air and on some vehicles in the mid-Atlantic have determined the source: pollen. Final results from the dust samples collected Friday in the state’s Eastern Panhandle indicated the material is predominantly pollen, with trace amounts of mineral matter, the West Virginia Department of Environmental…

Collecting pollen all day in the Arizona summer sun is hard work. Fortunately, bees have found an interesting way of staying cool—as photographer Joe Neely found out. Recently, Neely poised himself before a bubbling water display with his Nikon and macro lens, hoping to snap birds and bees. It was the perfect watering hole for a…

The bright, orange globe mallow flower, which flourishes in the desert, has been likened to a refreshing grenadine summer drink. That vivid flower blossom has a friend in the blue-eyed globe mallow flower bee (Diadasia diminuta). It loves gorging on pollen by day and, strangely, curling up inside those same blossoms—in a nectar-induced stupor, covered…