Myxobacteria of tropical soils is an under-explored bacterial group. We rep
ort here the results of sampling in Pune district of Western Ghats. A numbe
r of novel morphotypes were found in forest as well as urban/semi-urban soi
ls. There was a high level of floral dissimilarity between habitats. The mo
rphotypes detected in Pune district also differed from the northern Indian
species recorded earlier. Using a species individual curve on the Pune, Luc
know and pooled data, we try to estimate the number of species that are lik
ely to be present in India. A plausible estimate is several fold higher tha
n the species recorded worldwide so far.