New record and morphology of Fragmocirrus espeletiae Foissner, 2000 (Alveolata, Ciliophora, Stichotrichia) from soils of the Atlantic Forest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

The first record and morphologic characterization of a Brazilian population of the rare ciliate Fragmocirrus espeletiae Foissner, 2000, are provided based on specimens obtained from samples of leaf litter and soil collected from an Atlantic Forest fragment located near the town of Nova Friburgo, RJ. The specimens of F. espeletiae from the Atlantic Forest are conspicuously small and their meristic characters related to the ciliature have generally smaller average values in comparison to the Venezuelan type population. However, most of the comparable morphometric data overlap with the original description, thus both populations are considered morphologically conspecific.