Tokiharu Abe

Takiharu Abe ( Japanese 阿 部 宗明 , Abe Tokiharu ; born April 3, 1911 in Tokyo ; † August 9, 1996 ibid) was a Japanese ichthyologist from the University Museum of Tokyo University . He was considered an expert on puffer fish , especially the genus Takifugu , which he first described in 1949 .

Life

Abe first went to a public elementary school near Kogane in Chiba Prefecture . In 1919 he moved with his family to Taipei , Taiwan , where he lived until 1932. From childhood on, fascinated by fishing, he already collected many specimens of fish in Taiwan, which he preserved in formaldehyde at home . He learned the classification of fish from books by Shigeho Tanaka , who was an associate professor at the Zoological Institute of the University of Tokyo Science Faculty at the time. After graduating from high school, Abe studied eight years at the University of Tokyo, including fish systematics with Itiro Tomiyama under the leadership of Tanaka. After the Second World War he continued his studies, where he received his doctorate in science (Dr. Sci.) In 1952 with the dissertation "Taxonomic studies on the puffers (Tetraodontidae, Teleostei) from Japan and adjacent regions" .

From 1947 to 1977, Abe worked as a science officer at the Central Fish Station of Japan. He was interested in the systematics of different fish species, with a focus on the families Tetraodontidae (22 scientific papers) and Exocoetidae (10 scientific papers). Both families contain important food fish in Japan. In total, Abe published 145 scientific articles and described 9 new genera and 29 new species from 18 families. In 1977 he left the Tokai Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and moved to the Japan Marine Fishery Resource Research Center in Tokyo. From 1981 to 1996 he was director of the Tsukiji Fish Information Center and Museum in Tokyo, where he helped introduce new edible fish. Abe was editor of the first 14 issues of the Japanese Journal of Ichthyology (1950-1967) and the first 43 issues of the journal Uo , the journal of the Japanese Society of Ichthyology, where he was president from 1970 to 1972 and from 1978 to 1980. Abe was also President of the Japanese Society of Ichthyologists from 1976 to 1996, a member of the Linnean Society of London and a foreign honorary member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists .

In 1996 Abe died of a cerebral haemorrhage in a hospital in Tokyo.

Dedication names

Sagamichthys abei , Tetraodon abei and Chaunax abei are named after Abe .

Fonts (selection)

• Abe, T., 1950. New, rare or uncommon fishes from Japanese waters. I. Liparis franzi, new name. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 1: 135-139.
• Abe, T., 1952. Taxonomic studies of the puffers (Tetraodontidae, Teleostei) from Japan and adjacent regions — VII. Concluding remarks, with the introduction of two new genera, Fugu and Boesemanichthys. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 2: 35-44, 93-97, 117-127.
• Abe, T., 1953. New, rare or uncommon fishes from Japanese waters. II. Records of rare fishes of the families Diretmidae, Luvaridae and Tetragonuridae, with an appendix (description of a new species, Tetragonurus pacificus, from off the Solomon Islands). Japan. J. Ichthyol., 3: 39-47.
• Abe, T., 1955. On a new pacific flying-fish, Prognichthys sealei, retaining five unbranched fin-rays above in the pectoral throughout life. Rec. Oceanogr. Works Japan, 2: 185-192.
• Abe, T., 1957a. Notes on fishes taken from the stomach of whales taken in the Antarctic. I. Xenocyttus nemotoi, a new genus and new species of zeomorph fish of the subfamily Oreosomatinae Goode and Bean, 1895. Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst. (Tokyo), (12): 225-233.
• Abe, T. 1957b. Illustrated descriptions of one thousand useful fishes, II, Morikita Shuppan, Tokyo. (In Japanese.)
• Abe, T., 1959. New, rare or uncommon fishes from Japanese waters. VII. Description of a new species of Beryx, Japan. J. Ichthyol., 7: 157-163.
• Abe, T. 1960. Description of a new species of lutjanid fish of the genus Paracaesio from Japan. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 8: 56-62.
• Abe, T., 1961-1962. Notes on some fishes of the subfamily Braminae, with the introduction of a new genus Pseudotaractes. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 8: 92-99, 101-114.
• Abe, T. 1966. Description of a new squaloid shark, Centroscyllium kamoharai, from Japan. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 13: 190-198.
• Abe, T. and WN Eschmeyer. 1972. A new species of the scorpionfish genus Helicolenus from the North Pacific Ocean. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 4th Ser., 39: 47-53.
• Abe, T. and Y. Haneda. 1972. Description of two new species of the ponyfish genus Leiognathus from Indonesia. Sci. Rep. Yokosuka City Mus. (Nat. Hist.), (19): 1-6.
• Abe, T. and Y. Haneda. 1973. Description of a new fish of the genus Photoblepharon (family Anomalopidae) from the Red Sea. Bull. Sea Fish. Res. Stn, Haifa, 60: 57-62.
• Abe, T. and H. Hotta. 1963. Description of a new deep-sea fish of the genus Rondeletia from Japan. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 10: 43-48.
• Abe, T., S. Kojima, and T. Kosakai. 1963. Description of a new nomeid fish from Japan. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 11: 31-35.
• Abe, T., R. Marumo, and K. Kawaguchi. 1965a. Description of a new cetomimid fish from Suruga Bay. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 12: 57-63.
• Abe, T., R. Muramo, and K. Kawaguchi. 1965b. Description of a new alepocephalid fish from Suruga Bay. Japan. J. Ichthyol., 13: 67-72.
• Abe, T., M. Miki, and M. Asai. 1977. Description of a new garden eel from Japan. UO, (28): 1-8.

literature

• Ryoichi Arai: Memories of Dr. Tokiharu Abe (1911–1996) in: Ichthyological Research Volume 44, Number 1 / February 1997. Springer