Introduction Bat guano supports a great diversity of organisms including arthropods that live on guano (Ferreira and Martins, 1998) and energy flow in these tropic cascades based on guano production by roosting bats (Hairston and Hairston, 1993). Interestingly, the diversity of organisms living on or in guano piles differs depending on the diet of the bat producing the guano. Guano from sangivorous bats is typically inhabited by fly larvae springtails, and beetles. Guano of insectivorous bats inhabited by mites, pseudocorpions, beetles, thrips, moths and flies lastly guano of frugivorous bats is inhabited by spiders, mites, isopods, millipedes, centipedes, springtails, bark lice, true bugs, and beetles (Ferreira and Martins, 1998). Although, several studies have compared the impact of guano from different bat species on cave ecology (Trajano, 1996; Ferreora and Martins, 1998; Shahack-Gross et al., 2004), the composition of guano from bats consuming different diets has received little attention. Fungi are distributed worldwide, with particular species being endemic in particular regions. The species are grouped by natural environment as being primarily associated with humans (Anthrophilic), other animals (zoophilic), or soil and guanophilic (Brandt and Warnock, 2003). Bat guano is rich substrates for fungi in the cave environment along with dung, plant debris, carcasses and other organic debris. Poulson (1972) reported that bat guano is simple in structure but just enough to constitute a complete ecosystem. The fungi present in guano commonly serve as saprotrophs andor pathogens as transient chemo- heterotrophic microorganisms (Northup et al. , 1997). Therefore, the present study was aimed to investigate the diversity of guanophilic fungi in the guano of fruit eating bats. Materials and Methods Guano samples of Rousettus leschenaulti were collected from the historical monuments of Ayodhya, Faizabad(26°45'58"N 82°08'40" E), Bara Imambara, Lucknow (26°86'85" N, 80°91'27" E) and Chunar Fort, Mirzapur(25°07'15.02"N 82°52'34.77" E) while the samples of Cynopterus sphinxcollected from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University campus, Lucknow (26°76'57"N, 80°92'09" E) and Sidharth Nagar (27°27'16" N, 82°82'10" E). The samples of Pteropus giganteus were collected from Mohanlalganj (26°40'57"N, 80°59'1.49"E).The guano samples were collected aseptically using spatula and forceps, kept in sample vials and stored at -20°C for further analysis. Isolation of fungus The guano samples were diluted serially by following Aneja (2003). The diluted sample was inoculated in sterile petri dishes containing potato dextrose agar medium supplemented with chlorotetracycline. The plates were incubated at 28ºC for 8days. Thereafter, the properly grown fungi were used for subculture in Czapck yeast agar plates and incubated at 25ºC for 3-7 days. Microscopic analysis A small portionof mycelium and conidiophores were extirpatedfrom young colony, placed on a microscopic slide and gently spread it. A drop of lactophenol cotton blue was taken on a glass slide, observed under Light Microscope (OLYMPUS CX41) and photographs were taken at different magnifications.The fungal species were identified based on morphological features and by following Thom (1945) and Raper and Thom (1949) Results and Discussion A total of 13 fungal isolates were obtained from Diversity of Guanophilic Fungi of Frugivorous Bats * Pawan Kumar Misra, Divya Sharma and V. Elangovan Department of Applied Animal Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Vidya Vihar Raibareli Road Lucknow-226025 * Email : elango70@yahoo.com 129