“…Although species richness of ciliates in continental waters and natural systems (rivers, streams, lakes) is high (>60 taxa) (Madoni, 1993(Madoni, , 2005Sola et al, 1996;Foissner, 1997;Madoni and Zangrossi, 2005;Yang et al, 2012;Basuri et al, 2020), in WWTPs, especially those which operate with activated sludges, species richness is generally lower (<40 species) (Madoni et al, 1993;Martín-Cereceda et al, 1996;Dubber and Gray, 2011). Lately in Brazil there have been some studies about richness and species description of ciliates in WWTPs operating with activated sludges (Silva and Silva-Neto, 2001;Paiva and Silva-Neto, 2004;Bento et al, 2005;Ginoris et al, 2007;Oliveira et al, 2009;Siqueira-Castro et al, 2009;Fernandes and Silva-Neto, 2013). In our study, a lower number of taxa was to be expected as it is a combined anaerobic followed by aerobic system (UASB + activated sludge) that also did not take into account species that left cyst form while cultivated at the lab.…”