Description of two new, mycophagous soil ciliates (Ciliophora, Colpodea):: Fungiphrya strobli n. g., n. sp. and Grossglockneria ovata n. sp.

The morphology and infraciliature of two new, mycophagous soil ciliates are described. Specimens were isolated from dried, rewetted soil samples with the non-flooded Petri dish method and investigated in vivo and with various silver impregnation techniques. Fungiphyra strobli n. g., n. sp. was discovered in the mud of rock-pools on the summit of Table Mountain, Republic of South Africa. It is a holotrichously ciliated, about 50 x 40 mu m-sized grossglockneriid with the oral apparatus on the right side of the cell. The adoral ciliature, minute in all other members of the group: is well developed and has a mean of eight kineties forming a conspicuous left, oral polykinetid, highly reminiscent of that found in small species of the genus Colpoda. The ejected extrusomes have a unique, inflated distal end. Grossglockneria ovata n. sp. was discovered in leaf litter from the Lackawanna State Forest in Pennsylvania, USA. It differs from the other members of the genus by the ovate shape, smooth cortex, and the sparse, irregularly-shaped mucocysts. Taxonomic characters and ranking of grossglockneriids are discussed. Because of the complex, unique feeding tube associated with a unique feeding strategy, mycophagy, it is argued that grossglockneriid ciliates should be classified in a separate order, in spite of their close genetic relatedness to members of the order Colpodida.