Hello Peter and All,
To sum up there is no proof published saying V.J. predates the 1904 date. So
saying V.J. dates back millions of years can not be proven.

Possibly a believable hypothesis but certainly not provable from my looking
through stacks of papers.
Also from looking through the book Asian Apiculture ( 700 pages) which sits
on my desk. The book is based on the proceedings of the first International
Conference on the Asia Honey Bees and Bee Mites.

Probable : maybe

provable: certainly not

My second problem with the paper you posted is the absconding hypothesis.
Not sure where the author found his source but certainly NOT the number one
reason for cerana control of V.j.  I have done many posts on cerana on BEE-L
but kind of dropped the subject due to lack of interest from other members
but a search with my name and cerana will pull up quite a bit of
information.

bob

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