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Free-living anaerobic ciliates are of considerable interest from an ecological and an evolutionary standpoint. Extraordinary tentacle-bearing predatory lineages have evolved independently several times within the phylum Ciliophora, including two rarely encountered anaerobic litostomatean genera, <i>Legendrea</i> and <i>Dactylochlamys</i>. In this study, we significantly extend the morphological and phylogenetic characterization of these two poorly known groups of predatory ciliates. We provide the first phylogenetic analysis of the monotypic genus <i>Dactylochlamys</i> and the three valid species of <i>Legendrea</i> based on the 18S rRNA gene and ITS-28S rRNA gene sequences. Prior to this study, neither group had been studied using silver impregnation methods. We provide the first protargol-stained material and also a unique video material including documentation, for the first time, of the hunting and feeding behavior of a <i>Legendrea</i> species. We briefly discuss the identity of methanogenic archaeal and bacterial endosymbionts of both genera based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, and the importance of citizen science for ciliatology from a historical and contemporary perspective.