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Armpit

According to Mary J Marples, the forearm is


the desert, the scalps are the cool woods and the
armpit is the tropical rainforest. The armpit is like the
tropical rainforest, containing an enormous amount of
bacteria. Although numbers of bacteria go very high,
not a lot of different bacteria reside over there. The
diversity of the axilla is rather low, compared to other
skin sites such as the belly button and the hands.
Therefore, some very dominant bacteria reside in the
armpit. Most of the times, staphylococci or
micrococcus bacteria are the dominant bacterial
strains. In the first case, this only result in a moderate –normal– body odor, while in the last case,
this can give rise to an unpleasant smell.
Microbes love the cozy warmth of the human armpit; it's like a trip to the tropics without
ever having to leave home. And it's crowded in there. Those microbes eat compounds in sweat
and generate odors, which support a flourishing deodorant industry.

Plated Medium Slant Medium


Micrococcus luteus (M. luteus) is a Gram-positive to Gram-variable, non-motile, coccus,
saprotrophic bacterium. It can form in tetrads or irregular clusters but not in chains and belongs
to the family Micrococcaceae.
Type of margin: Entire
Type of elevation: Convex
Texture: smooth, glistening
Pigmentation: Yellow, non-diffusible pigment

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