This article has been nominated for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion, which will decide whether to keep it. This discussion may also result in the article being merged, redirected, or draftified. |
Sajan KC | |
|---|---|
| Education | Tribhuvan University; Eastern New Mexico University (M.S., 2023) |
| Known for | Taxonomy of Hemipeplinae; butterfly fauna of Nepal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Entomology, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera |
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.
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.
KC's 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 a thorough treatment of the group. 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.
KC has published extensively on the butterflies of Nepal, contributing new distribution records, checklists, and faunal assessments across multiple families. In 2022 he co-authored a paper documenting seven species new to Nepal 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.
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.
In 2025, KC and colleagues reviewed the taxonomy of Rapala in Nepal, recognizing 13 species. The study clarified confusion between R. rectivitta and R. rosacea, recorded R. rosacea in Nepal for the first time, reaffirmed R. huangi as a valid species with new records from Nepal and northeastern India, and proposed R. hinomaru as a junior synonym of R. nissa. It also provided identification keys and specimen images.
In 2026, KC, Vaughn M. Shirey, and Nick V. Grishin conducted a phylogenomic study of Asian Rapala using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from 16 specimens representing 15 species. The study supported the description of Rapala laximae, a new species from Myanmar closely related to R. duma. It also confirmed R. nissa nissa and R. n. hirayamana as distinct subspecies and established R. nissa and R. huangi as separate species.
KC has written two novels: After Love, in English, and Phitkiri, in Nepali. In 2021, KC was among 22 writers recognized in Baahrakhari Media's "Best Stories 2078" (उत्कृष्ट कथा–२०७८) selection, part of the third Dish Home 12Khari story writing competition.