Anomalurus derbianus Gray 1842

Anomalurus derbianus Gray 1842, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, 10: 262.

Type Locality: " Sierra Leone ".

Vernacular Names: Lord Derby's Scaly-tailed Squirrel.

Synonyms: Anomalurus beldeni Du Chaillu 1860; Anomalurus chrysophaenus Dubois 1888; Anomalurus cinereus Thomas 1895; Anomalurus erythronotus Milne-Edwards 1879; Anomalurus fortior Lönnberg 1917; Anomalurus fraseri (Waterhouse 1843); Anomalurus griselda Dollman 1914; Anomalurus imperator Dollman 1911; Anomalurus jacksoni de Winton 1898; Anomalurus jordani St. Leger 1935; Anomalurus laticeps d’Aquilar-Amat 1922; Anomalurus neavei Dollman 1909; Anomalurus nigrensis Thomas 1904; Anomalurus orientalis Peters 1880; Anomalurus perustus Thomas 1914; Anomalurus squamicaudus (Schinz 1845) .

Distribution: Sierra Leone, Côte d’Iroire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, Dem. Rep. Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, N Malawi, Mozambique.

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

Discussion: See Misonne (1974, pt. 6:4-5). Distribution in Côte d’Iroire formerly questionable, but occurrence confirmed by Fischer et al. (2002). Taxa fraseri, imperator and nigrensis were considered "valid as a race" by Rosevear (1969); beldeni, neavei and perustus were considered "well defined subspecies" by Verheyen (1968); laticeps and squamicaudus are synonyms of fraseri (Allen 1939); fortior is a synonym of jacksoni (Verheyen 1968) . There is no proof of the validity of subspecies (A. C. Schunke, in litt.).