Termín

Yoshioki Takakuwa was the person who succeeded to Dr. K. W. Verhoeff and became a pioneer of Myriapodology in Japan, and then he taught in the Tokyo University of Education (today University of Tsukuba). He researched Chilopoda centipedes of East Asia from1920s to 1940s. He published many papers and books about taxonomy, anatomy and biogeography, which were many great contributions to Chilopoda studies. However, there is no indication that he had ever came to Taiwan to collect; he obtained specimens of centipedes from his Taiwanese friends. He reported that there are 39 new species and new records by Taiwanese specimens. Takashima (1954) reported that most Takakuwa’s specimens were destroyed by an air-attack of Tokyo during World War II in 1945. There are four books Takakuwa wrote in Japanese about the classification of Chilopoda: “Geophilomorpha” (1940), “Scolopendromorpha” (1940), “Lithobiomorpha” (1941), and “The Anatomy and Taxonomy of Scutigeromorpha” (1955). In his books, he described in detall the morphological characters and diagnoses of Japanese and Taiwanese species. They are great references to study Asian Chilopoda centipedes. Dr. Takakuwa murmured Banzai in his sick bed, he was ill at that time and deceased on 9 March 1960 at the age of 88