Sajan KC

Sajan KC is a Nepalese entomologist. His research focuses on the taxonomy of beetles and butterflies across South Asia, particularly the Himalayas, and the Americas. He is best known for a monographic revision of the beetle subfamily Hemipeplinae and for extensive contributions to documenting butterfly diversity in Nepal. He has also written fiction in both English and Nepali.

Early life and education KC is from Pokhara, Kaski District, Nepal. He completed his undergraduate studies at Tribhuvan University and earned a Master of Science in biology at Eastern New Mexico University in 2023, under the supervision of entomologist Darren Pollock. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida.

Research

Hemipeplinae KC's most significant taxonomic contribution is a comprehensive world revision of the subfamily Hemipeplinae (family Mycteridae), co-authored with Darren A. Pollock and published in Zootaxa in 2025. The monograph described twenty-nine new species and constitutes the most thorough treatment of the group to date. Two species were named in reference to the television series Breaking Bad, which is set in New Mexico: Hemipeplus heisenbergi and the Malaysian Hemipeplus saymyname. and contributed to the Annotated Catalogue of the Butterflies of Nepal. He has also examined butterfly diversity in rapidly urbanising habitats in Pokhara and documented species richness and seasonal variation in the Central Himalayas.

During fieldwork in eastern Nepal in September 2021, KC collected specimens of the skipper Halpe aucma — a species previously recorded only from northeastern India — establishing it as a new country record for Nepal. Morphological examination of male genitalia distinguished the specimens from the closely related Halpe filda and Halpe molta.

Giant skippers and Aegiale KC has contributed to the study of giant skippers (tribe Megathymini). In 2024, he and Sapkota reported the first Texas record of the Mexican-M hairstreak Parrhasius moctezuma and a possible U.S. sighting of the tequila giant skipper Aegiale hesperiaris. In 2026, KC and colleagues described a new species in the genus Aegiale C. Felder & R. Felder, 1860, from Sonora, Mexico. Follow-up fieldwork in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas and New Mexico, supported by a Florida Museum of Natural History student travel award, was conducted in late 2025.

Selected publications

Beetles

Butterflies

Citizen science