The years 1910 to 1940 constitute a seminal period in the history of entomology in Southern California, with the formation of the Lorquin Natural History Society in 1916 following the construction of the museums in Los Angeles and San Diego. John Adams Comstock, Jr. found a position with the recently opened Southwest Museum (Los Angeles) and installed his growing personal collection there. It was during his time at the Southwest that Comstock began his collaboration with C. M. Dammers and for roughly a decade they pursued their shared interests in studying and illustrating the lifecycles of Lepidoptera. Their collecting trips often involved other entomologists, including Lloyd Martin (a rising figure at the Los Angeles museum) and John L. Sperry of Riverside. Comstock and Dammers jointly p...more >>ublishing a series of papers, many of which focused on the classification and life cycles of moths. Indeed, it can be suggested from the collections and publications that Comstock’s interest in the latter half of his career swung from butterflies to nocturnal Lepidoptera. Following Dammers’ death in 1934, and Comstock’s own retirement from the Los Angeles museum in 1948, Comstock’s work seemed to concentrate on the biology of the geometrid moths of California.