I wonder whether von Frisch was aware that in 1870 Pettigrew wrote in A Handy Book of Bees: "Do bees have a language? To be sure they have."  
"Sometimes we have been wishful to let the bees of a weak hive have the honey of some combs half empty. When no bees were at work outside a morsel of comb has been taken to the door of this weak hive; and as soon as four or six bees began to feed on it, they were carried quietly to the combs to be emptied. As soon as these few bees got home with their booty, the whole hive seemed to be made aware that there was more to be had, and hundreds, nay thousands, were soon busily carrying it home. Bees, then, have a language."
Chris

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