Masaaki Morisita (1913-1997)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Masaaki Morisita, Professor Emeritus of Animal Ecology
at Kyoto University known as the proposer of I~-index
("Morisita index" in American and European literature),
died in Kyoto on 25 February, 1997, at the age of 84.
After receiving a Bachelor of Agriculture degree at the
Entomological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto
University in 1932, he continued his work on basic aspects
of animal ecology at the Zoological Laboratory, Faculty
of Science, Kyoto University. There he collaborated with
the late Kinji Imanishi, the leading primatologist in Japan,
and the late Kunio lwata, a pioneer of evolutionary studies
of subsocial and eusocial Hymenoptera. They moved
their laboratory from the Faculty of Agriculture to the
Faculty of Science. In the Zoological Laboratory,
Morisita worked on distribution and social behavior of
ants and published several papers in Japanese. Several
years later, he became a teacher of biology in a middle
school. At that time (1930 to 1940), it was difficult to find
a position in universities or in research institutions even
for especially promising young biologists.
ANT TAXONOMY
PUBLICATIONS
Morisita, M. 1945. Ants of the southern part of Hokkaido, Japan. Mushi 16: 21-28
Morisita, M.; Kubota, M.; Onoyama, K.; Ogata, K.; Terayama, M.; Yamauchi, K.; Sonobe, R.; Yamane, 1992. A guide for the identification of Japanese ants. III. Myrmicinae and supplement to Leptanillinae. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Tokyo: Myrmecological Society of Japan, 94 pp. [