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The objective of this study was to determine the sample size necessary to estimate the mean and coefficient of variation in four species of crotalarias (C. juncea, C. spectabilis, C. breviflora and C. ochroleuca). An experiment was carried out for each species during the season 2014/15. At harvest, 1,000 pods of each species were randomly collected. In each pod were measured: mass of pod with and without seeds, length, width and height of pods, number and mass of seeds per pod, and mass of hundred seeds. Measures of central tendency, variability and distribution were calculated, and the normality was verified. The sample size necessary to estimate the mean and coefficient of variation with amplitudes of the confidence interval of 95% (ACI95%) of 2%, 4%, ..., 20% was determined by resampling with replacement. The sample size varies among species and characters, being necessary a larger sample size to estimate the mean in relation of the necessary for the coefficient of variation.

The genetic divergence of sixteen rice cultivars regarding their resistance to the rice stem bug, Tibraca limbativentris Stål, was estimated by multivariate analysis techniques. The experiment was carried out in greenhouse, in randomized block design with eight replications. Eight plant resistance related traits were evaluated. Genetic divergence was evaluated by multivariate procedures: generalized Mahalanobis (D(2)) distance, the Tocher's grouping optimization method and canonical variables. The most dissimilar cultivars were Bico Ganga and Marabá Branco, while Agulha and Branco Tardão were the most similar. Five clusters were formed by the Tocher's optimization method. Three canonic variables explained 88.5% of the observed variation. We concluded that the multivariate analysis techniques are suitable for analyzing the genetic divergence among rice cultivars, indicating Bico Ganga and Marabá Branco as the most promising for future breeding programs of resistance to the rice stem bug.