Anomalurus beecrofti Fraser 1852

Anomalurus beecrofti Fraser 1852, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1852: 17.

Type Locality: Equatorial Guinea, " Fernando Po " (= Bioko).

Vernacular Names: Beecroft's Scaly-tailed Squirrel.

Synonyms: Anomalurus argenteus Schwann 1904; Anomalurus chapini (J. A. Allen 1922); Anomalurus citrinus Thomas 1916; Anomalurus fulgens Gray 1869; Anomalurus hervoi Dekeyser and Villiers 1951; Anomalurus laniger Temminck 1853; Anomalurus schoutedeni Verheyen 1968 .

Distribution: Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, N Angola, Dem. Rep. Congo, W Uganda, NW Zambia.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix III (Ghana); IUCN – Lower Risk (lc). Not mentioned in Schlitter (1989).

Discussion: Belongs to the distinct genus Anomalurops according to Ansell (1978:73), Grubb et al. (1998:185), Rosevear (1969:159), and Verheyen (1968:404). Taxa argenteus and hervoi were considered "valid as a race" by Rosevear (1969); chapini and citrinus were considered "well defined subspecies" by Verheyen (1968); schoutedeni was considered a distinct species by Verheyen (1968) and by Cabral (1971). There is no proof of the validity of subspecies (A. C. Schunke, in litt.).