Notes on ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from Espeletia trees and Espeletia soils of the Andean Paramo, with descriptions of Sikorops espeletiae nov spec. and Fragmocirrus espeletiae nov gen., nov, spec.

Ciliated protozoa from the giant rosettes of Espeletia trees (Compositae) a nd Espeletia soils were studied in four samples each from the Andean Paramo in Venezuela and Ecuador. Collections were analysed with the non-flooded P etri dish method, which reactivates the ciliates' resting cysts from air-dr ied samples. Species were identified by live observation and silver impregn ation. Although most samples, especially those from soil, contained many te state amoebae, only 18 ciliate species could be found, indicating that the non-flooded Petri dish method was rather ineffective. Probably, ciliates fr om this region do not make "strong " (drought resistant) resting cysts beca use of the humidity of the habitats. Most of the ciliate species recorded a re common in litter and soil world-wide. However, two of them are new: Siko rops espeletiae nov, spec. and Fragmocirrus espeletiae nov. gen., nov. spec . Both species are described in detail, including ontogenesis of F. espelet iae. Two other as yet insufficiently known species are redescribed: Arcuosp athidium muscorum (Dragesco & Dragesco-Kerneis, 1979) and Gonostomum affine (Stein, 1859).