On my travels, I stayed in a hotel very close to his lakeside home at Brunnwinkl near St.Gilgen in the Austrian Salzkammergut. Although others before him wrote about the dancing of bees, and some guessed that communication was taking place, Karl Von Frisch (1886-1982) was the first to decode their dancing. You can read about this in detail in Wikipedia (see below for link). All observant beekeepers will have seen their bees dance, and if one has the time to stop and think (not always possible with a colony of busy bees!) it's possible to work out what they are saying.
His Natural History Collection is displayed in the excellent local museum. The top section of one display has a collection of bumble bees. Some of these are now known to be extinct.
Here are some other photographs which may be of interest:
You may also be interested in:
The Waggle Dance
Article discussing the current Sixth Mass Extinction - alas, we are killing our beautiful home.
