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During my inquiries about the bumble bee I came in the book "Tanzsprache und Orientierung der Bienen" (Springer-Verlag, Berlin - Heidelberg - New York, 1965) of the famous bee expert Karl von Frisch (Nobel prize 1973) upon the following comment (p.317):
...To the family of Apidae belong as social bees, in addition to the Apini and the Meliponini, the Bombinae (bumble bees). Their messy wax combs which do not yet show an economic use of the building materials through efficient shaping of the wax cells, the missing stocks for wintertime which result in the elimination of every colony in autumn, and other primitive characteristics suggested an original type of communication. However, the findings were disappointing: n o t h i n g was revealed, no alert of the colony members about a rich food source and certainly no message about its location. Bumble bees returning from a rich harvest could for quite some time run excitedly around on the wax comb and also bump into colony members but a meaningful reaction was never observed. A food-collecting bumble bee did never lead any newcomers to the feeding-place even after days of food collection....
Dr. S. (translation by himself)

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