CARACAS - Coleopterans, or beetles, predominate among the species found in Venezuela. There are approximately 100,000 varieties, according to the country's first official report on biodiversity. Dicotyledonous plants come in second place with 10,112 different types.

The report, published by the Ministry of Environment, states that Venezuela, with a territory of 916,445 square km, has 115,674 animal, 16,681 plant, 2,205 algae and lichens and 313 fungus species.

''Venezuela is one of the 10 countries with greatest biodiversity worldwide,'' says the study. The new Constitution, in effect since last December, establishes that the State must protect biological and genetic diversity.

MEXICO CITY - The overpopulation of caimans, a type of crocodile, has forced the fishing community in the state of Colima, on Mexico's Pacific coast, to request government authorization to kill the giant reptiles and to raise fish in ponds.

The caimans eat the largest fish and pose a danger to the human population, say those who fish the Ameala lagoon. Since these animals first began to take over the area, the fish catch has dropped 50 percent, they complain.

The local community has been petitioning the government environmental authorities since last year to develop a plan to kill the caimans and utilize their skins, thus controlling the population and making up for some of the financial losses. The fisher folk have also requested advice on raising fish in ponds - they don't want to have to compete with the caimans.

BUENOS AIRES - A 30-km stretch of Argentina's coast, along the Rio de la Plata, is still contaminated with petroleum 19 months after a spill caused by a collision of two ships.

The National Institute of Water and the Environment reported its findings this month after studying the shores near Magdalena, 100 km south of the capital, where a cargo ship that was having mechanical problems ran into an oil tanker belonging to Shell Oil Corporation in January 1999.

According to the report, despite the efforts to contain and neutralize the spill, contamination persists at ''high'' and ''severe'' levels in samples of river water and sediment. This continues to have a harmful effect on the coastal flora and fauna, and on the human population.

HAVANA - Scientists have not lost hope that their search of the eastern regions of Cuba will turn up a royal woodpecker, or 'campephilus principalis bairdii,' a bird in danger of extinction that has presumably already disappeared from Mexico and the United States.

People have been looking, unsuccessfully, for the royal woodpecker since 1986, the year one was last seen. A search expedition was launched in August, concentrating its efforts in Cupeyal del Norte, where the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park is located.

The bird experts are keeping their eyes open for the giant nests royal woodpeckers are known to build. With 76,000 hectares, the Humboldt Park is one of the largest and most biologically complex of the island's protected natural areas.