Levantamento etnobiológico e identificação de lepidópteros do Brasil através de rede social

Abstract

The way of thinking, cultivating and producing knowledge can be analyzed in social network groups from an ethnobiological and netnographic point of view. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the records of Lepidoptera species in a social network group. For data collection, “Insetos do Brasil” was selected, a private group with around 67,000 members, which aims to disseminate information about insects. In this group, 100 posts referring to butterflies and moths were selected, from January to November 2022. The criteria used for the selection of these were: (1) sharp photographs for species identification, (2) posts with the location and, (3) Post with species identification. Posts were organized into: (1) gender of people according to the name used on the social network, (2) location of record, (3) identification of specimens in family, tribe, genus and species and (4) eating habits. From this, qualitative and quantitative statistical analyzes were performed. Among the species, the most frequent families were Nymphalidae with 33%, Saturniidae 9% and Lycaenidae 7%. The female gender made 40 posts, while the male made 57 and the unidentified 3. Species of medical interest and others that can be used as bioindicators were found, such as those of the Nymphalidae family. In addition, species were recorded in new locations, being an unprecedented record for some species, requiring future monitoring to confirm the prognosis. In this way, we realize that the nonspecialist public is having access, through informal tools, to species identifications of butterflies and moths, since the social network group is composed of specialists and non-specialists in the area.