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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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