| abstract | Till recently, 59 species of ptyctimous mites were recorded from Ecuador, most of them exclusively from the Sierra and Oriente regions. The number of species of limited distributions, endemic or indigenous is very low, the majority of them are widely distributed in the Neotropical Region or are pantropical or semicosmopolitan. We processed 47 soil samples collected from the three main regions of Ecuador (Costa, Sierra and Oriente) and found 292 specimens of ptyctimous mites. In total, 28 species were identified; among them three species that are new for science and 11 that are new records for the mite fauna of Ecuador. The new species, Mesoplophora (Parplophora) fusiformis Niedbala sp. nov. Austrophthicarus obtusus Niedbala sp. nov. and Notophthiracarus paraschizocomus Niedbala sp. nov., are described and figured. Some morphological comments are given on four known species: Acrotritia brasiliana (Mahunka, 1983), A. clavata (Märkel, 1964), Arphthicarus saucius (Niedbala, 1988) and Atropacarus (Hoplophorella) andrei (Balogh, 1958). Apart from three new and one endemic species (Notophthiracarus ecphylus Niedbala & Illig, 2007) found in this study, the majority of species found are widely distributed in Neotropical region. |