Formerly, the genus Peridinium was used to house a number of armored dinoflagellates with an equatorial girdle and numerous thecal plates. Many species listed within Peridinium may reside in different genera on the basis of fine(!) details of plate structure (the "plate tabulation"). This situation applies, for instance, with the endosymbiont-bearing species Peridinium (=Glenodinium) balticum and P. (=G.) foliaceum, and with marine colorless dinoflagellates that are now most often referred to the genus Protoperidinium. If an isolate labelled Peridinium has not been checked carefully by an expert in plate tabulation analysis, the identification to genus and species must be considered uncertain.
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