pioneering American educator and researcher in entomology; his studies of scale insects and butterflies and moths provided the basis for systematic classification of these insects.

Comstock was educated at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and at Yale University. He later studied at the University of Leipzig (1888–89). In 1875 he joined the faculty of Cornell, where, except for his service as chief entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1879–81), he spent his entire career.

Comstock was a prolific contributor to the literature of his field. His major works include Introduction to Entomology (1888); A Manual for the Study of Insects (1895), written with his wife, Anna Botsford Comstock; How to Know Butterflies (1904); The Elements of Insect Anatomy (1895), written with Vernon Kellogg; The Spider Book (1912); and The Wings of Insects (1918).