New observations on the rarely reported tropical dinoflagellates Tripos lanceolatus and T. schroeteri from the Colombian Caribbean, South Pacific and Indian Oceans

We report the circumtropical dinoflagellate Tripos lanceolatus (Kofoid) F. Gomez from the Colombian Caribbean, provide a new record from the tropical western Pacific off Tonga, and the first record from the Australian sector of the Indian Ocean. We present the first scanning electron micrographs of thecal ornamentation and apical pore structure which show its morphological similarities to T. furca (Ehrenberg) F. Gomez within the subgenus Biceratium. We also report the more widely distributed tropical species T. schroeteri (B. Schroder) F. Gomez from the Colombian Caribbean, and compare it to the first scanning electron micrographs of the morphologically similar T. digitatus (F. Schutt) F. Gomez within the subgenus Archaeceratium.

Automated summary

We reported the findings of the circumtropical dinoflagellate Tripos lanceolatus (Kofoid) F. Gomez from the Colombian Caribbean, with new records from the tropical western Pacific off Tonga and the Australian sector of the Indian Ocean. Scanning electron micrographs showed its morphological similarities to T. furca (Ehrenberg) F. Gomez within the subgenus Biceratium. Additionally, we reported the widely distributed tropical species T. schroeteri (B. Schroder) F. Gomez from the Colombian Caribbean and compared it to T. digitatus (F. Schutt) F. Gomez within the subgenus Archaeceratium.