Bacteroides melaninogenicus Prevotella melaninogenica is a species of bacterium in the normal microbiota of the upper respiratory tract.

P. melaninogenica grow well on blood agar, where they form circular dark-colored colonies that darken over one to two weeks.

[4] Prevotella melaninogenica was originally described as Bacteroides melaninogenicus in 1921 by Wade Oliver and William Wherry at the University of Cincinnati as a new bacterium isolated from various sites of several different human patients.

[1][5] In 1982, Lillian Holdeman and John Johnson determined that some bacteria previously described as B. melaninogenicus were actually a distinct species, which they named Bacteroides loescheii.

[1][4] In 1990, Haroun Shah and David Collins at the London Hospital Medical College reclassified several species of Bacteroides, including B. melanogenicus under a new genus called Prevotella.