John August Kusche

John August Kusche (1869–1934) was a German–American botanist and entomologist. He discovered species of moths and butterflies, and made collections in remote South Pacific and Arctic regions, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaiian Islands, and elsewhere. He contributed many specimens to collections at North American museums. A species of the aster family, Erigeron kuschei, was named after him.

Biography 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."August Kusche's father, Johann Karl Wilhelm Kusche, had four children: Herman, Ernst, Pauline and August, from his first marriage. Subsequently, after the divorce from his first wife, he remarried and had six more children: Bertha, Wilhelm, Heinrich, Reinhold, and two others who died at a young age. August’s father descended from a long line of farmers who tilled the lands around Kreuzburg, Germany.

Kusche attended a gardening school in Kreuzburg but left at a young age after unintentionally setting a forest on fire. After the fire, he immigrated to the United States and corresponded with his family, encouraging them to join him.

Kusche's father relocated to Brownsville, Texas, shortly after February 1893 and established a homestead. After contracting yellow fever and recovering, his health was greatly affected, leaving him weak and unable to work. 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."

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