August Kusche

J. August Kusche was a renowned botanist, and discovered many new species of moths and butterflies. The plant of the aster family, Erigeron kuschei is named in is honour.

Notable discoveries

Butterflies mounted by August Kusche, date unknown.

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

In 1928, Kusche donated to the Bishop Museum a total of 164 species of Lepidoptera he collected on Kauai between 1919 and 1920. Of those, 55 species had not previously been recorded on Kauai and 6 were new to science, namely agrotis stenospila, euxoa charmocrita, plusia violacea, nesamiptis senicula, nesamiptis proterortha and scotorythra crocorrhoa.

The Essig Museum of Entomology lists 26 species collected by Kusche in California, Baja California, Arizona, Alaska and on the Solomon Islands.

Early life

His father's name was Johann Karl Wilhelm Kusche, he remarried in 1883 to Johanna Susanna Niesar. He had three siblings From his father (Herman, Ernst and Pauline) and four half siblings from her second marriage (Bertha, Wilhelm, Heinrich and Reinhold. There were two other children from this marriage, which died young and whom were not recorded). His family were farmers, while he lived with them, in Kreuzburg, Germany.

His siblings quickly accustomed themselves to their new mother, however August, the eldest, did not get on easily with her. He attended a gardening school there in Kreuzburg. He left at a relatively young age after unintentionally setting a forest fire. "One day on a walk through Kreuzburg forest, he unintentionally caused a huge forest fire. Fearing jail, he fled from home and somehow made it to America."

He wrote letters back to his family, urging them to come to America. His father eventually did, sometime shortly after February 1893. His father started a homestead in Brownsville, Texas. Yellow fever broke out and his father caught it. He managed to survive, while many did not, leaving him a sick old man in his mid fifties. He wrote to August, who was then living it Prescott, Arizona, asking for money. 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,"

August didn't have any money either, and had been hoping to borrow money from his father. If he had wanted to visit him, then he would have had to make the trip on foot.

When August arrived in America, he got a job as a gardener on a Pennsylvania 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.

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

Later life

He traveled to the South Seas where he collected moths and butterflies. There he caught a terrible fever that very nearly killed him. He was picked up by a government ship in New Guinea, and was unconscious until he awoke in a San Francisco hospital. After that time he had hearing loss and lost all of his teeth. His doctor told him not to take anymore trips to Alaska, and this apparently helped his condition.

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.