Litonotus alpestris Foissner, 1978

Litonotus alpestris — Tirjaková 1997a: 16; Tirjaková 1997b: 27; Tirjaková 1998: 16; Tirjaková 2001: 15; Tirjaková 2003a: 37; Tirjaková 2003b: 20; Tirjaková 2004: 7; Tirjaková & Stloukal 2004: 17; Krno et al. 2006: 308; Tirjaková 2006: 9; Tirjaková 2010: 36; Tirjaková & Vďačný 2013a: 670; Tirjaková & Vďačný 2013b: 529.

Main morphological characters (according to Foissner et al. 1995). Size 30–50 × 10–15 µm in vivo. Body lanceolate with narrowly rounded posterior body end. A single ellipsoidal macronuclear nodule with a single micronucleus. Contractile vacuole terminal. Extrusomes rod-like and slightly curved, about 2–3 µm long, scattered in cytoplasm and attached along whole length of oral bulge. Somatic ciliary pattern Litonotus -like; 3–4 right and 3– 4 left kineties.

Distribution. Litonotus alpestris was found in gravel and debris of the spring area below the Veľký Javorník, Malé Karpaty Mts (Tirjaková 1997a, Tirjaková & Stloukal 2004); in oligotrophic streams in the National Nature Reserve Rozsutec, Malá Fatra Mts (Tirjaková 1997b); in the benthos of the Hron River and its tributaries (Tirjaková 1998); in the benthos from various streams in the High Tatra Mts (Tirjaková 2001); in the benthos from various localities in the Gidra River (Tirjaková 2003a); in the benthos from the Stupavský potok brook (Tirjaková 2003b); on stones and in mosses and fine gravel-debris from the Hincov potok stream, High Tatra Mts (Tirjaková 2004, Krno et al. 2006); in the spring area of the Hron River (Tirjaková 2006); in the benthos and plankton of a hypertrophic shallow water reservoir near the town of Modra (Tirjaková 2010); in the sediment from the littoral zone of the upper Váh River (Tirjaková & Vďačný 2013a); in the sediment from the Zubrovica stream, Low Tatra Mts (Tirjaková & Vďačný 2013b).