Diversity and nesting ecology of dwarf bee Apis florea ( Fabr.) in the selected
regions of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract :

The horizontal distribution of mycoflora in the atmospheric air of Koyambedu bus terminus, Chennai was investigated by sampling air at three sites viz. car parking area, metro bus terminus and mofussil bus terminus, Koyambedu Chennai, South India.Air was sampled with Petri plates with Potato Dextrose Agar medium. The air sampling commenced from the 1st January 2009 and continued till the end of June 2009. The samples were taken once in a month. Thus, six samples were taken at three sites. Air sampling has been carried out between 4 pm and 5 pm on the day of sampling and the sampling duration was 10 minutes. The number and variety of fungi isolated were more at mofussil bus terminus, Koyambedu, Chennai. A large portion of fungi were common to all the three sites. However, a few were specific to the particular sites. Aspergillus japonicus was numerically more dominant in all the three sites. Although its percentage frequency was not the same, it was highest at mofussil bus terminus, followed by metro bus terminus, and car parking area at Koyambedu. Finally from the preliminary observations made in this study, it is noticed that air mycoflora of Koyambedu bus terminus, Chennai exhibit variation in their horizontal distributions.