Nomes populares de insetos comumente citados pelos usuários das redes sociais

Abstract

The manner in which insects are named significantly influences how they are perceived, interacted with, and understood. This study aimed to analyze the vernacular names of insects mentioned in publications from five virtual home garden groups and their respective geographical distributions, from a netnographic perspective. Data collection involved the selection of publications containing images of insects, shared by users on virtual social networks, along with their comments. Within these groups, ten keywords were utilized to identify publications related to insects belonging to the orders Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Dermaptera, Mantodea, Psocoptera, and Diptera. A quali- quantitative analysis was performed on the most frequent vernacular names and the region of origin of the comments. The orders that received the highest number of comments with vernacular names were Lepidoptera (47%), Hymenoptera (22%), and Hemiptera (17%), indicating a higher frequency of mentions of representatives of these orders. Notably, the orders Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera presented a greater variety of vernacular names, and cases of inadequate associations were also observed, with controversial comments that may impact the dissemination of accurate information about insects.