Guadua amplexifolia and Guadua angustifolia are the most promising timber substitutes amongst American bamboos due to their outstanding dimensions and structural properties. Despite the commercial potential of these species, there are few studies on the survival and adaptability of juveniles in plantations. The present study dealt with survival, growth, and ecophysiological response of juvenile clonal plants of these species, cultivated in abandoned pastures in Mérida, Venezuela. Survivorship, growth (height and culm diameter), and ecophysiological parameters were monitored the first year during wet and dry seasons. Survival rates were high in both species (95% in G. amplexifolia and 89% in G. angustifolia). Midday leaf water potentials decreased in both species during dry months (-1.28 to-2.72 MPa in G. amplexifolia and-1.67 to-2.37 MPa in G. angustifolia, respectively). Net photosynthetic rates measured during wet [16.57 ± 1.40 and 13.68 ± 2.40 μmol(CO2) m-2 s-1, respectively] and dry seasons [12.19 ± 2.82 and 8.12 ± 1.81 μmol(CO2) m-2 s-1, respectively], demonstrated that G. amplexifolia maintained consistently higher photosynthetic rates compared to G. angustifolia, which could explain the higher growth rates of the former. Similar trends were observed for stomatal conductance, transpiration, water-use efficiency, electron transport rate, and photochemical quenching of PSII. G. angustifolia maintained higher nonphotochemical quenching as well as a higher consumption of electrons per molecule of CO2 fixed, indicating a lower photosynthetic efficiency. The maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (0.73-0.76) suggested that neither of these species suffered from photoinhibition, despite persistently high radiation and air temperatures at the study site., F. Ely, O. Araque, R. Jaimez., and Obsahuje bibliografii
A new nematode species, Guyanema longispiculum sp. n. is described from the abdominal cavity of the freshwater armoured catfish, Loricariichthys hrunneus (Hancock), from two localities in western Venezuela. It differs from all hitherto known members of the genus in having unusually long spicules (0.480-0.609 mm) and from individual species also by other morphological and biometrical features. It is characterized by the presence of eight cephalic papillae arranged in two circlets, localization of deirids anterior to the nerve ring, a conical, undivided tip of the tail in both sexes, four pairs of preanal and six pairs of postanal papillae in the male, and a markedly elevated vulva in the female. A key to species of Guyanema is presented.