Inventory and data analysis of leaf inhabiting fungi of protected areas of Northern Maharashtra, India

The present paper deals with the systematics and analysis of data of the diversity of leaf inhabiting fungi of protected areas of Northern Maharashtra consisting of Khandesh region [Aner Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS), Toranmal WLS and Yaval WLS] and Vidarbha region (Lonar WLS, Dnyanganga WLS, Narnala WLS, Bor WLS, Pench Tiger Reserve, Melghat Tiger Reserve). During studies, a total of 40 fungal taxa were obtained. Phyllactinia was top genus with three species. Survey also resulted in publication of one new species viz., Tripospermum melghatense. Besides taxonomic studies, the diversity of leaf inhabiting fungi was also analyzed by using the statistical approaches and therefore, to analyze the difference in diversity of foliicolous fungi between the two regions, an ordinary least square (OLS) regression model was developed having species count as a regressand. To analyze similarity in the species composition, Jaccard similarity Index (JSI) was computed. There was no statistically significant (p-value > 0.10 for F-test) difference in the mean Species Count between the regions. However, low value of JSI (2.50%) shows highly dissimilar species composition, which indicates, rich diversity of foliicolous fungi. © 2022, Indian Phytopathological Society.