John August Kusche (1869 – 1934)[1] was a botanist and entomologist who discovered many new species of moths and butterflies. The plant of the aster family, Erigeron kuschei, was named in his honor.[2]

Biography

Mounted butterflies
Butterflies mounted by August Kusche

Kusche's father was Johann Karl Wilhelm Kusche. August Kusche had three siblings from his father, named Herman, Ernst and Pauline, and four half siblings from a second marriage, named Bertha, Wilhelm, Heinrich and Reinhold. There were two other children from this marriage, who died young. His family were farmers, who he lived with in Kreuzburg, Germany.

Kusche attended a gardening school in Kreuzburg but left at a young age after unintentionally setting a forest fire.[3]

He corresponded with his family, encouraging them to join him in America. His father relocated to Brownsville, Texas, shortly after February 1893 and established a homestead. Despite contracting Yellow Fever, he survived, albeit as a sick man in his mid-fifties. He reached out to August, who was residing in Prescott, Arizona at the time, seeking financial assistance. August wrote back, saying "Dear father, if you are out of money, see to it that you go back to Germany as soon as possible. Without any money here, you are lost,"[3]

When August arrived in America, he got a job as a gardener on a Pennsylvanian farm. He had an affair with a Swiss woman, which resulted in a child. August denied being the child's father, but married her anyway. He went west, on horseback, and had his horse stolen by Native Americans. He ended up in San Francisco. His family joined him there. By this time, he had three sons and a daughter.

Mounted butterfly picture
A picture made of mounted butterflies and plants created by Kusche. The inscription on the back reads "Mounted by I Aug Kusche, Nov. 2, 1926: Los Angeles Calf."

After his children grew up, he began traveling and collecting moths and butterflies.

Later life

He traveled to the islands of the Pacific Ocean, where he collected moths and butterflies. There, he caught a fever that nearly killed him. He was picked up by a government ship in New Guinea, and was unconscious until he awoke in a hospital in San Francisco. After that, he had hearing loss and lost all of his teeth. His doctor told him not to take any more trips to Alaska, which helped his condition.

In 1924, he lived in San Diego. He had taken a trip to Alaska just before this date. He worked as a gardener in California for nine years (1915–1924), where he died of stomach cancer.

Notable discoveries

In 1928, Kusche donated 164 species of Lepidoptera he collected on Kauai between 1919 and 1920 to the Bishop Museum. Of those species, 55 had not previously been recorded on Kauai and 6 were newly discovered, namely Agrotis stenospila, Euxoa charmocrita, Plusia violacea, Nesamiptis senicula, Nesamiptis proterortha, and Scotorythra crocorrhoa.[4][5]

The Essig Museum of Entomology listed 26 species collected by Kusche from California, Arizona, Alaska, and the Solomon Islands.[6]

References

  1. ↑ John August Kusche calflora.net.
  2. ↑ Eastwood, Alice (1931). "New Species of Plants from Western North America". Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. Fourth Series. 20: 158. ISSN 0068-547X.
  3. 1 2 Memories of My Youth -Volume 1- , by Reinhold Kusche
  4. ↑ "List of Lepidoptera at the Bishop Museum, Collected by J. August Kusche on Kauai in 1919 and 1920" (PDF).
  5. ↑ "Bishop Museum - Taxonomy". www2.bishopmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-02-18.
  6. ↑ "Essig Museum of Entomology Collections". essigdb.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2017-02-18.
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